*        .  • 


Patriotism 


and  the 


Christian  Life 


By 

Wilfrid  A.  Rowell 


PATRIOTISM 

AND  THE 


JAN   9  1919 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE 


BY 


WILFRID  A.  ROWELL 


1^1 


THE  WOMANS  PRESS 

600  Lexington  Avenue 

1918 


Copyright,  August,  igi8,  by 
National  Board,  Young  Women's  Christian  Associations 
OF  THE  United  States  of  America 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Foreword 5 

CHAPTER 

I.   The  Place  of  Patriotism  in  Religion     .  9 

II.   Growing  by  Conflict 23 

III.  The  Church  in  the  World  Crisis      .     .  37 

IV.  The  Peril  of  the  Slacker 53 

V.  Living  in  Faith 69 

VI.   That  These  Dead  Shall  Not  Have  Died 

IN  Vain 83 

VII.   Christian  Indignation 97 

VIII.   The  Word  and  the  Sword iii 


FOREWORD 

In  a  day  of  war  and  the  break-up  of  old  systems 
and  conventions,  the  Christian  view  of  hfe  is  subjected 
to  new  tests  of  strength  and  vahdity.  Every  sincere 
person  wishes  to  know  the  truth  and  to  abide  by  it. 
Every  one  must,  as  far  as  possible,  think  through  for 
himself  the  great  problems  of  life  and  faith.  Our 
young  men  in  the  army  at  home  and  abroad  are  finding 
a  new  stimulus  to  life,  a  new  personal  development 
through  their  devotion  and  consecration  to  the  service 
of  their  country  and  through  that  service,  to  the  world. 
There  is  a  source  of  new  personal  growth  for  the 
young  men  and  women  at  home  in  seeking  to  think  out 
the  insistent  spiritual  problems  of  this  new  day. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  these  pages  to  suggest  lines  of 
approach  to  some  of  the  more  important  spiritual  prob- 
lems as  related  to  the  war,  to  patriotism,  and  to  Chris- 
tian duty.  The  hope  is  that  the  thoughts  suggested 
here  may  lead  to  further  study  and  to  an  effort  on  the 
part  of  each  reader  to  analyze  and  express  his  own 
convictions. 

These  subjects  may  be  used  as  a  basis  for  study  and 


FOREWORD 

conference  in  discussion  groups.  For  that  purpose  a 
few  topics  and  questions  have  been  placed  at  the  close 
of  each  chapter. 

June  I,  1918. 

Beloit,  Wisconsin. 


PATRIOTISM 


PATRIOTISM   AND   THE 
CHRISTIAN   LIFE 


THE  PLACE  OF  PATRIOTISM  IN 
RELIGION 

The  great  national  movements  rising  out  of  the 

world  conflict  have  compelled  fresh  thought  on  the 

subject  of  patriotism.     In  every  coun- 

Problem  of     try  the  main  appeal  by  the  men  in  au- 

Patriotism      ^j^Qj-j^y  ^^  ^j^^  people  for  support  in  the 

war  has  been  a  patriotic  appeal.  What  is  patriot- 
ism? It  is  not  enough  tO'  say  that  it  is  love  of 
country.  There  must  be  some  deeper  analysis  in 
order  to  understand  both  the  place  and  the  power 
of  patriotism.  Patriotism  is  almost  too  complex  a 
problem  to  be  fully  analyzed.  It  involves  expert 
and  scientific  knowledge  of  history,  biology,  psy- 
chology, geography,  ethnology  and  politics! 

The  ultimate  basis  of  patriotism  is  a  subject  for 
much  controversy.     The  intense  interest  in  the  sub- 

9 


10    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

ject  and  the  fresh  discussion  of  it  assist  in  clearing 
our  minds.  Some  declare  that  the  chief  element  in 
patriotism  is  geographical.  Men  have  an  instinc- 
tive love  for  the  particular  land  in  which  they  were 
born  and  reared.  Any  normal  person  will  love 
any  place,  high  or  low,  cold  or  hot,  island  or^main- 
land,  where  he  may  happen  to  be  born.  Others 
declare  that  the  element  at  the  heart  of  patriotism 
is  racial.  It  is  not  the  place  that  is  important  but 
the  blood,  the  inheritance,  the  social  bond.  Man's 
love  for  a  place  is  not  so  much  for  the  place  itself 
but  for  his  social  life  as  centered  there.  He  would 
ultimately  love  any  place  where  his  social  tradi- 
tions and  habits  had  their  roots  and  daily  expres- 
sion. 

Still  others  say  that  patriotism  is  mainly  an  in- 
tellectual misconception,  that  it  is  a  narrow  and 
foolish  idea,  handed  down  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration from  the  childhood  of  the  race.  A  modem, 
civilized,  educated  person,  they  declare,  should  be 
above  a  conception  of  life  so  limited  as  to  hold  any 
particular  feeling  for  any  particular  place;  a  truly 
broad-minded  person  does  not  belong  to  any  par- 
ticular country,  but  is  a  ''citizen  of  the  world." 
Such  men  repudiate  every  tie  of  patriotism  as  men 
commonly  understand  it  and  declare  themselves  to 
be  ''internationalists." 

Jesus  has  very  little  to  say  directly  on  the  sub- 


PLACE  OF  PATRIOTISM  IN  RELIGION       ii 

ject  of  patriotism.     But  we  cannot  look  at  Jesus 

Jesus  and  ^P^^^  ^^°^  ^^^  geographical  and  racial 
Patriotism  backgrounds  of  his  life.  We  do  know- 
that  the  Jews  were  intensely  patriotic.  They  had 
been  trained  through  many  generations  to  exalt  the 
idea  of  nationalism.  They  passionately  loved  the 
land  of  their  history  and  their  birth.  The  greatest 
burden  of  the  Jews  in  Jesus'  day  was  the  fact  that 
they  were  a  subject  people.  Their  greatest  hope 
was  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Romans  from  their 
beloved  country  and  the  establishment  of  a  new 
Jewish  kingdom.  Their  Messianic  faith  lay  in  this 
longing. 

Can  we  believe  that  Jesus  had  no  share  with  his 
people  in  these  affections,  ideals  and  hopes?  It  is 
clear  that  He  shared  in  the  essential  feeling  of  his 
people,  while  his  ideas  of  the  methods  for  the  reali- 
zations of  those  hopes  were  radically  different. 
Jesus  never  opposed  or  criticized  the  Roman  gov- 
ernment. His  enemies  attempted  often  to  involve 
Him  in  trouble  with  the  government.  But  He  skil- 
fully avoided  every  effort  to  entangle  Him  in  polit- 
ical questions.  At  the  same  time  He  clearly  rec- 
ognized the  place  and  necessity  of  civil  government. 
He  said:  Render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are 
Caesar's  and  unto  God  the  things  that  are  God's.  He 
believed  in  paying  his  taxes  for  the  support  of  the 
state.     Some  think  that  Jesus  was  too  broad-mind- 


12    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

ed  to  be  patriotic,  others  that  He  was  too  much  in- 
terested in  man's  timeless  and  universal  relation- 
ships to  give  attention  to  problems  of  geography, 
race  or  government.  Others  think  that  He  looked 
for  the  speedy  overthrow  of  all  political  groups  in 
the  imminent  ending  of  the  world. ( 

Jesus  shared  in  the  patriotic  passion  of  his  peo- 
ple but  He  went  far  beyond  them  in  his  patriotic 
idealism.  One  of  the  historic  patriotic  ideals  of 
the  Jews  was  that  Jehovah,  through  their  race, 
would  bring  spiritual  blessing  to  the  whole  world. 
The  promise  to  Abraham,  the  recognized  father  of 
the  race,  was:  In  thee  shall  all  the  famiHes  of  the 
earth  be  blessed  (Gen.  12:2,).  Jesus,  by  his  life  and 
actions,  if  not  by  specific  teaching,  gave  expression 
to  the  finest  qualities  in  Jewish  patriotism.  Fur- 
thermore He  implied  reason  for  the  highest  patriot- 
ism. Jesus  clearly  had  a  conviction  that  God  had 
raised  up  and  guided  the  Hebrew  people  for  a  great 
purpose.  God  had  nourished  and  trained  them  in 
a  particular  place  for  a  particular  purpose.  There- 
fore every  Jew  should  love  his  country  and  his  race 
because  of  their  unique  contribution  to  the  world. 

The  Jews  of  Jesus'  day  conceived  of  the  realiza- 
tion of  that  patriotic  ideal  in  far  different  ways  than 
did  Jesus.  He  took  their  old  conception  and  in- 
fused it  with  a  higher  spiritual  meaning.  They  ex- 
pected to  bless  the  world  by  ruling  it ;  He  expected 


PLACE  OF  PATRIOTISM  IN  RELIGION       13 

to  bless  the  world  by  serving  it,  dying  for  it,  re- 
deeming it.  Their  methods  failed.  His  succeeded. 
His  work  was  a  patriotic  expression  of  the  finest 
spiritual  ideals  of  the  Jewish  people.  The  ministry 
of  Jesus  was  a  Jewish  ministry,  back  of  which  lay 
not  only  the  purpose  of  a  loving  God  but  also  the 
racial  characteristics  of  a  Hebrew  ancestry  and  the 
moulding  influence  of  a  love  for  "the  rocks  and 
rills,  the  woods  and  templed  hills"  of  Palestine. 

All  too  little  is  known  of  the  causes  and  origin  of 
different  races,  peoples  and  nations.     But  it  is  clear 

that  because  of  different  racial  history 
Greek,  ,  .  1         .•  1 

Roman  and  temperament,  each  nation  and  peo- 

and  Jew        pj^  ^^^  some  distinctive  contribution  to 

make  to  the  development  and  perfection  of  life.     It 

is  the  Christian  belief  that  God  has  a  work  for  every 

person  to  do.     Shall  we  not  believe  that  God  has  a 

work  for  each  race  and  nation  as  well?     Men  are 

coming  to  believe  in  the  duty,  destiny  and  moral 

responsibility  of   nations.      Jesus  Himself  implied 

this  when  He  said :  The  kingdom  of  God  shall  be 

given  to  a  nation  bringing  forth  the  fruits  thereof 

(Matt.  21  :43).     Why  should  the  final  command  to 

his  disciples  be,  Go  ye  and  teach  all  nations,  if  his 

sole  interest  was  in  the  individual  ? 

The  student  of  history  is  familiar  enough  with 

the  contributions  of  certain  peoples  to  the  welfare 

of  the  race:  the  Romans  with  their  gift  of  law, 


14    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

the  Greeks,  culture;  the  Jews,  religion.  At  the  same 
time  few  people  realize  to  how  large  an  extent  the 
religious  contribution  of  the  Jews  was  modified  by 
the  religious  ideas  of  both  the  Greeks  and  the  Ro- 
mans. There  are  some  elements  in  our  modern 
Christianity  that  are  more  Greek  and  Roman  than 
Jewish  in  character.  Both  Greeks  and  Romans 
have  made  contributions  to  religion  through  the 
Christian  faith.  National  and  racial  characteristics 
to-day  are  fairly  clear.  The  modern  nations  like- 
wise are  making  a  contribution  to  the  spiritual  life 
of  the  world.  No  one  knows  yet  what  the  contribu- 
tion of  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  people  is  to  be 
to  civilization  or  to  religion,  but  missionaries  who 
have  spent  their  lives  among  these  people  assure  us 
that  the  rising  Christian  Church  in  these  lands  will 
some  day  give  a  new  impetus  and  power  to  the 
Christian  faith.  St.  John,  in  his  vision  of  the  new 
Jerusalem,  describes  a  place,  not  in  which  all  men 
become  alike  and  act  alike,  but  a  place  to  which 
each  nation  brings  its  own  peculiar  honor  and  glory, 
— that  is,  its  peculiar  national  contribution  to  the 
spiritual  welfare  of  mankind   (Rev.  21:26). 

The  great  question  now  before  us  is:  Has  the 
United  States  of  America  a  distinctive  contribution 
The  United  ^^  make  to  the  welfare  of  the  world? 
States  Has  this  nation  a  spiritual  mission?    If 

so,  what  is  it  and  how  may  it  be  performed?    Cer- 


PLACE  OF  PATRIOTISM  IN  RELIGION       15 

tain  clear  indications  are  revealed  in  our  history. 
It  surely  means  something  that  the  seeds  of  the 
Protestant  Reformation  took  root  and  came  to 
full  flower  in  America.  If  Germany  had  conserved 
the  results  of  the  Reformation,  so  boldly  conceived 
and  courageously  stated,  there  would  have  been  no 
such  conflict  as  that  of  to-day  coming  out  of  Ger- 
many. The  first  fruits  of  the  Reformation  in  Eng- 
land were  transplanted  to  New  England,  there  to 
start  a  new  state  in  which  political  and  religious  free- 
dom should  be  a  reality.  In  America  both  civil  and 
religious  life  received  direction  for  all  time  to  come 
from  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  It  surely  is  of  signifi- 
cance that  the  struggle  for  equal  rights  for  the 
black  man  was  fought  out  on  our  soil.  Emerson 
wrote  at  the  time  of  the  Civil  War,  "America  is 
another  name  for  opportunity.  Our  whole  history 
appears  like  a  last  effort  of  Divine  Providence  in 
behalf  of  the  human  race."  A  study  of  our  char- 
acteristic Americans  and  their  writings — of  men 
like  Washington,  Franklin,  Penn,  Emerson,  Lowell 
and  Lincoln — reveal  something  that  may  be  called 
the  American  characteristic.  It  is  a  sense  of  obliga- 
tion to  put  moral  and  spiritual  ideals  into  action. 
Professor  John  Dewey  said  in  an  address  on  Wash- 
ington's Birthday  of  this  year,  *'We  need  to  recover 
something  of  the  militant  faith  of  our  forefathers, 
that  America  is  a  great  idea,  and  add  to  it  an  ar- 


i6    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

dent  faith  in  our  capacity  to  lead  the  world  to  see 
what  this  idea  means  as  a  model  for  its  own  future 
well-being." 

Patriotism  in  an  American  is  a  love  of  his  coun- 
try because  of  many  un-analyzable  elements  of  his- 
tory, family  feeling  and  home  surroundings.  Fool- 
ish, indeed,  is  the  man  who  thinks  the  affections  of 
men  can  be  analyzed!  But  there  is  a  great  sane 
rational  basis  underneath  it  all.  A  man's  patriot- 
ism also  consists  in  a  great  conviction  that  America 
has  been  called  by  God  to  lead  this  world  into  a 
new  understanding  of  liberty  and  to  help  the  world 
to  establish  it  as  a  reality  among  all  men. 

There  are  all  sorts  of  patriotism  to-day,  as  there 
are  all  kinds  of  men  and  nations.  The  patriotism 
of  some  is  like  the  patriotism  of  most  Jews  of 
Jesus'  day.  This  is  the  patriotism  that  loves  and 
serves  its  country  because  of  the  ambitions  for 
world  rulership.  This  is  a  patriotism  that  sees  na- 
tional glory  in  terms  of  domination  and  sees  other 
people  only  as  subject  races.  We  believe  that  the 
essence  of  American  patriotism  is  the  same  as  the 
patriotism  of  Jesus — a  patriotism  that  sees  the  glory 
of  America  in  her  service  to  the  world,  that  sees 
other  peoples  raised  through  her  example  and  sacri- 
fice to  the  equality  and  privilege  of  freemen. 

This  high  conception  of  patriotism  does  not 
mean  that  every  American  has  it  or  that  as  a  na- 


PLACE  OF  PATRIOTISM  IN  RELIGION       17 

tion  these  ideals  are  fully  realized.  No  one  who 
is  familiar  with  American  life  can  be  blind  to  the 
weakness  and  the  sins  of  our  people  as  individuals 
and  as  a  nation.  The  vices  of  luxurious  living 
weaken  some,  racial  prejudices  divide  others;  mis- 
understandings between  capital  and  labor  menace 
our  industrial  system,  politicians  deceive,  and  prof- 
iteers cheat.  Even  yet  too  many  citizens  are  unre- 
sponsive to  their  public  responsibilities.  The  love 
of  comfort  and  pleasure  blinds  some  men  and 
women  to  the  serious  consideration  of  life. 

Nevertheless,  we  believe  that  the  impelling  spirit 
at  the  heart  of  the  nation  is  sound  and  clear.  We 
are  making  great  experiments  and  learning  as  we 
go  along.  A  dominant  motive  to  make  the  best  we 
know  triumphant  is  in  the  nation  and  the  world. 
There  is  an  active  effort  in  some  quarters  to-day  to 
make  much  of  the  weakness  and  sins  of  America. 
There  are  those  who  feel  that  as  the  nation  par- 
ticipates in  a  great  world  crusade  she  must  be  kept 
humble  by  thinking  of  her  sins.  This  alone  is  bad 
patriotism  and  bad  psychology.  No  man  or  na- 
tion was  ever  aroused  to  action  merely  by  meditat- 
ing on  his  own  weakness.  To  see  a  great  wrong 
that  needs  to  be  righted,  to  behold  the  suffering  of 
others  calling  for  redress,  should  be  visions  sum- 
moning the  nation  to  the  greatest  efforts.  These 
efforts  will  aid  in  removing  the  evil  in  life  more 


i8    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

than  discussions  about  the  evil  itself.  These  are  not 
the  days  in  which  to  discuss  our  national  sins;  but 
rather  with  a  prayer  for  strength  upon  our  lips 
to  go  forth  to  do  our  duty.  Only  by  so  doing, 
shall  we  purify  our  own  lives  or  realize  the  na- 
tional destiny  which  God  has  placed  before  us. 

.  The  determining  and  dominating  ele- 

and  ment  of  American  patriotism  has  been 

Patriotism  i^^pij-ed  by  the  religious  spirit.  The 
loyal  American  sings,  ''Our  Fathers'  God,  to  Thee, 
author  of  liberty,  to  Thee,  we  sing." 

Among  our  most  influential  men  there  has  been 
a  sense  of  loyalty  to  God  which  has  inspired  a  loy- 
alty to  their  fellow-men  and  a  passion  to  infuse  a 
spiritual  ideal  into  social  and  political  organiza- 
tion. The  great  leaders  of  American  civil  life  and 
movement  have  been  profoundly  religious  men. 
The  people  of  the  nation  will  not  accept  the  leader- 
ship of  men  otherwise  minded.  President  Lincoln 
declared  that  his  chief  concern  was  not  to  know  if 
God  were  on  his  side,  but  rather  if  he  were  on  God's 
side.  There  are,  doubtless,  many  men,  not  relig- 
ious, who  are  deeply  patriotic,  but  they  are  not  the 
men  who  lead  the  nation. 

The  desire  to  serve  and  a  willingness  to  sacri- 
fice are  the  outstanding  characteristics  of  American 
patriotism  to-day.  The  country  entered  the  world 
war  wuth  no  selfish  aims.     There  has  never  been 


PLACE  OF  PATRIOTISM  IN  RELIGION       19 

an  expression  of  patriotism  like  it  in  the  history  of 
the  world.  The  desire  of  the  Christian  men  and 
women  who  love  their  country  is  to  make  our  na- 
tion contribute  her  best  to  the  world  in  this  con- 
flict against  selfish  aggression  and  lust  for  con- 
quest. They  wish  America,  through  devotion  to 
her  great  task,  to  bring  her  honor  and  glory  into 
the  great  world  brotherhood,— the  city  of  the  new 
Jerusalem. 

Emerson  expressed  our  patriotic  idealism  when 
he  wrote,  "The  end  of  all  political  struggle  is  to 
establish  morality  as  the  basis  of  all  legislation.  It 
is  not  free  institutions,  it  is  not  a  republic,  it  is 
not  a  democracy  that  is  the  end — no,  but  only  the 
means.  Morality  is  the  object  of  government.  We 
want  a  state  of  things  in  which  crime  shall  not  pay. 
This  is  the  consolation  on  which  we  rest  in  the 
darkness  of  the  future  and  the  afflictions  of  to-day, 
— that  the  government  of  the  world  is  moral  and 
does  forever  destroy  what  is  not." 

For  Study  and  Discussion 

What  are  the  chief  elements  in  patriotism?  What 
is  the  strength  or  weakness  of  men  who  deny  hav- 
ing a  feeling  of  loyalty  for  any  one  country  and 
declare  themselves  to  be  internationalists  or  citizens 
of  the  world?     How  did  Jesus'  conception  of  the 


20    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

brotherhood  of  man  differ  from  this  kind  of  in- 
ternationalism? How  far  does  the  patriotism  of 
the  average  person  express  his  religious  conviction? 
How,  and  to  what  extent,  can  political  machinery 
be  made  the  means  of  accomplishing  a  religious  pur- 
pose ?  What  part  ought  the  individual  citizen  to 
take  in  helping  America  to  contribute  her  best  to 
the  world?  What  bearing  have  the  missionary 
movements  of  the  Church  upon  this  question? 


CONFLICT 


II 

GROWING  BY  CONFLICT 

Men  live  on  this  earth  in  a  reahii  of  mystery. 

Just  when  or  how  the  earth  came  to  be  what  it  is, 

nobody  knows.     A  careful  study  of  the 
Growing  "^  -^ 

Force  of  problem  reveals  the  fact  that  the  earth 
^  ®  has  been  passing  through  many  stages 

of  heating  and  cooling,  from  a  state  of  gas  to  solid 
matter.  The  one  ever  constant  note  in  its  history 
has  been  that  of  change.  These  processes  are  still 
going  on  to-day.  The  forces  of  heat  and  gravita- 
tion, wind  and  water,  all  act  so  as  to  make  the 
earth  different  to-day  from  what  it  was  yesterday. 

How  life  came  upon  the  earth  is  likewise  a  mys- 
tery. The  scientist  loves  to  puzzle  over  this  fas- 
cinating problem,  and  the  philosopher  to  meditate 
upon  it.  But  the  wonderful  thing  about  Hfe  is  its 
power  of  growth.  A  study  of  life,  covering  history 
as  far  as  man  has  any  knowledge,  reveals  the  fact 
that  life  develops  from  lower  to  higher  forms.  The 
highest  form  of  life  is  that  of  the  human  being. 

Of  the  growth  and  development  of  the  physical 
23 


24    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

universe  the  writers  of  the  Bible  have  little  to  say. 
This  is  largely  because  they  v^^ere  more  interested  in 
the  life  of  man.  Many  v^riters  of  the  Bible  look 
upon  the  v^orld  as  an  expression  of  the  life  of  God. 
"The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God  and  the 
firmament  showeth  his  handiwork"  (Ps.  19:1).  The 
Apostle  Paul  seemed  to  sense  the  action  of  the 
mighty  forces  which  Helped  to  mould  the  universe 
into  shape.  ''The  whole  creation  groaneth  and  tra- 
vaileth  in  pain  together  until  now"  (Rom.  8:22). 
In  this  last  analysis  the  religious  teachers  bring  us 
to  the  right  solution  of  the  problems  of  life.  They 
believe  that  the  origin  of  man's  life  Hes  in  God  and 
that  his  growth  and  final  destiny  likewise  are  guid- 
ed by  the  same  almighty,  foreseeing  power. 

One  of  the  most  striking  elements  in  the  teach- 
ings of  Jesus  is  his  emphasis  on  life.     He  mani- 
fested little  interest  in  inert  matter.    He 
Jesus'  ,      ,  .  .  ... 

Interest  in     had  a  great  mterest  m  anytnmg  that 

Growth  grew.      He    revealed   a   love   for   little 

children,  trees,  flowers.  He  spoke  often  of  seeds, 
which  have  the  power  of  a  growing  life  within 
them.  He  used  them  as  a  figure  of  a  silently  yet 
powerfully  growing,  developing  force. 

Jesus  used  in  his  teaching  stories  that  had  to  do 
more  with  the  fact  and  the  meaning  of  growing  life 
than  with  any  other  one  element  of  human  experi- 
ence.   The  Kingdom  of  God  was  like  the  sower  who 


GROWING  BY  CONFLICT  25 

went  forth  to  sow  (Mark  4  :i-2o) ;  like  the  mustard 
seed  (Matt.  13:31);  the  mystery  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God  was  hke  a  man  who  sows  his  seed  and  al- 
lows the  silent  forces  of  nature  to  bring  it  to 
fruition,  while  the  sower  goes  his  way  unconcerned 
about  processes,  but  assured  of  the  results  (Mark 
4:26-29).  The  presence  of  good  and  evil  in  this 
world  and  their  relation  to  each  other  was  like  the 
wheat  and  the  tares  growing  together  (Matt.  13: 
14-30).  The  symbol  of  his  own  crucified  and  risen 
life  was  seen  in  the  seed  which  in  its  transformation 
dies  to  nourish  the  new  spark  of  life  (John  12  :24). 
Faith  was  in  essence  a  growing  force.  It  was  like 
a  grain  of  mustard  seed  (Matt.  17:20).  The  re- 
sults of  a  man's  life  were  like  the  fruit  of  a  tree 
(Matt.  7:17,  18;  12:33).  The  most  intimate  spir- 
itual relationship  between  Jesus  and  his  disciples 
was  like  that  of  the  vine  and  the  branches  (John 

15:1-6). 

Jesus  used  these  living  things  to  illustrate  some- 
thing that  was  more  important  than  growth  in  the 
physical  world.  It  was  the  reality  of  growth  and 
development  in  the  realm  of  man's  moral  and  spir- 
itual nature.  By  these  figures  and  illustrations 
Jesus  tried  to  teach  each  man  how  to  grow  a  soul 
and  how  to  help  the  soul  in  the  process  of  growth. 
He  sought  to  help  men  to  understand  that  human 
society  was  something  that  had  life  and  that  had 


26    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

possibilities  of  growing  into  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
Jesus  came  to  show  men  how  to  nourish  and  cul- 
tivate the  normal,  natural  development  of  their 
inner  spiritual  lives.  He  pictured  the  glorious  con- 
dition into  which  a  man  might  grow.  It  is  inter- 
esting to  note  that  the  word  translated  as  "perfect" 
in  the  passage,  Ye  therefore  shall  be  perfect  as  your 
heavenly  Father  is  perfect,  means  literally  ''full 
grown,"  not  perfect  in  our  usual  sense  of  flawless- 
ness  or  absolute  perfection. 

Among    the    elements    in    moral    and    spiritual 
growth  there  are  four  which  we  may  well  consider 

at  this  point.    The  first  is  hereditv.  The 
Moral  and         ,       •      ,    ,       .  i         •  , 

Spiritual        physical  background,  with  accompany- 

Growth  -j-^g  mental  traits,  has  a  marked  influ- 

ence in  the  development  of  the  moral  nature,  just 
how  physical  and  mental  traits  are  passed  on  from 
parent  to  child  is  still  a  mystery  to  the  scientist; 
but  the  fact  of  such  transmission  is  undeniable  and 
this  fact  is  of  supreme  significance  in  dealing  with 
a  growing  child.  The  mysterious  problem  as  to 
how  far  the  personal  achievements  of  a  parent  may 
be  handed  on  to  a  child  is  still  much  discussed 
among  scientists  to-day.  There  seems  to  be  no 
doubt  that  a  long  family  history  characterized  by 
pure  blood,  keen  mental  ability,  steady  nerves  and 
righteous  purpose  is  a  powerful  dynamic  for  the 
dominance  of  those  characteristics  in  the  individ- 


GROWING  BY  CONFLICT  27 

ual.  Because  of  the  recognized  influence  of  this 
principle  in  life  to-day,  there  are  some  who  use  it 
as  an  excuse  for  their  own  personal  failures.  It 
is  easy  to  blame  one's  father  or  grandfather  or 
great  grandfather  for  undesirable  personal  traits. 
The  same  moral  responsibility,  however,  rests  on 
each  person  to  become  ''perfect"  no  matter  what 
his  ancestry  may  have  been.  If  the  family  history 
has  not  been  of  a  helpful  nature  there  is  inevitably 
a  harder  struggle  for  the  individual  to  overcome  the 
inherited  tendencies.  The  resultant  victory  is  all 
the  more  glorious.  All  persons  ought  to  see  to  it 
that  as  far  as  they  are  able  they  will  hand  down 
to  their  children  only  the  finest  inheritances. 

The  second  factor  in  moral  and  spiritual  growth 
is  environment,  or  the  atmosphere  and  circum- 
stances in  which  a  life  grows.  There  has  been  end- 
less discussion  as  to  the  relative  importance  of 
heredity  and  environment  in  the  development  of 
life.  To-day  many  of  our  leading  psychologists 
lean  toward  environment  as  of  greater  influence. 
It  is  clear  that  the  influence  of  clean  and  wholesome 
home  life,  the  personal  influence  of  cultivated,  re- 
fined and  spiritually-minded  parents,  are  of  incal- 
culable value  in  guiding  a  child  into  the  most  nor- 
mal development.  No  one  can  deny  the  power  for 
good  or  bad  influences  in  companions,  teachers  and 
friends.    A  recent  study  in  England  into  the  causes 


28    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

of  the  alarming  increase  in  juvenile  delinquency 
since  the  beginning  of  the  war  revealed  as  among 
the  chief  sources  the  absence  of  fathers  and  older 
brothers  in  the  war,  and  of  mothers  working  in 
munition  factories,  together  with  shorter  school 
hours,  resulting  in  more  time  for  boys  and  girls  to 
be  on  the  street.  These  are  all  sources  of  a  weak- 
ening in  the  environmental  influences.  The  reali- 
zation of  the  place  of  environment  in  growth  is 
both  a  warning  and  a  challenge.-  It  is  a  warning 
to  avoid  all  influence  which  hinders  the  richest 
growth  of  the  whole  personality.  It  is  a  challenge 
to  seek  to  give  to  all,  and  especially  to  the  children 
and  youth  of  our  country,  an  opportunity  to  grow 
in  the  most  stimulating  and  helpful  atmosphere. 
The  social  service  and  social  settlement  and  public 
welfare  movements  of  the  present  day  are  most 
helpful  efforts  to  this  end. 

The  third  element  in  growth  is  education.  This 
is  in  essence  a  factor  in  environment,  but  it  is  of 
such  importance  as  to  demand  consideration  by  it- 
self. Education  is  needed  to  train  the  mind  to  know 
and  understand  the  world  in  which  life  is  growing 
and  to  train  the  hand  to  act  with  the  highest  skill. 
The  most  important  product  of  education  is  not, 
however,  the  knowledge  of  facts  or  technical  skill, 
but  the  attainment  of  good  judgment,  the  ability  to 
make  the  right  choices  in  life.    This  is  what  is  sig- 


GROWING  BY  CONFLICT  29 

nified  by  the  definition  of  Wisdom  in  Proverbs 
9:10:  The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of 
Wisdom.  The  time  finally  comes  when  both  he- 
redity and  environment  play  diminishing  parts  in 
the  growth  of  the  personality.  The  continued 
growth  depends  more  and  more  upon  the  choices  of 
the  individual  and  his  ability  to  put  his  choice  into 
action.  The  right  sort  of  education,  which  develops 
and  trains  all  the  faculties  of  life,  will  produce 
that  power  of  independent  judgment  and  of  action 
which  will  keep  the  mind  and  spirit  growing  nor- 
mally to  the  end  of  life.  The  emphasis  in  all  edu- 
cation to-day  in  high  schools,  colleges  and  univer- 
sities is  too  exclusively  on  the  acquisition  of  facts 
and  the  attainment  of  technical  skill.  There  is 
need  of  a  new  interest  in  training  in  judgment  and 
skill  in  making  right  moral  choices. 

Another  element  in  growth  is  struggle, — pressing 
on  toward  a  desired  goal  and  resisting  all  that  hin- 
ders advance.  Good  heredity,  good  environment, 
and  good  education  all  together  are  not  sufficient  to 
produce  the  finest  results  in  character.  Some  of 
the  qualities  of  the  highest  personal  worth  come 
only  as  a  result  of  struggle.  We  all  have  opportu- 
nities to  try  our  wills  on  the  problems  of  hardship 
and  of  human  suffering.  The  very  resistance  of 
evil  in  the  world  gives  vigor  to  the  soul.  Neither 
should  one  fail  to  see  that  in  order  to  attain  a 


30    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

certain  goal,  he  must  press  on,  struggle,  pay  the 
price,  "the  last  full  measure  of  devotion."  Out  of 
the  present  war  with  all  its  terrible  evils,  good 
things  can  come  and  will  come  because  of  the  re- 
sistance against  evil  and  the  struggle  for  justice, 
brotherhood  and  permanent  peace. 

There  had  arisen  a  feeling  in  recent  years  that 
with  modern  civilization  the  world  had  nearly  if 
The  World  ^^^  quite  reached  its  capacity  of  growth, 
in  the  The    marvellous    scientific    discoveries, 

I^dkin&f 

the  knowledge  and  use  of  steam  and 
electricity,  rapid  travel  and  luxurious  living  brought 
men  into  a  feeling  of  satisfaction  with  themselves 
and  with  the  world.  The  outbreak  of  the  world  war 
has  revealed  the  truth  that  all  the  wonders  of 
science,  the  comforts  of  life  and  the  widest  oppor- 
tunities of  education  and  culture  do  not  necessarily 
contribute  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  growth  of 
human  nature.  Scientific  discoveries  and  marvel- 
lous mechanical  inventions  may  be  used  for  evil 
purposes  as  well  as  for  good  ones.  Men  of  to-day 
have  been  shocked  to  see  to  how  large  a  degree 
human  passions,  instincts  and  desires  have  remained 
unchanged  through  thousands  of  years.  The  heart 
of  man  is  still  in  a  crude  state;  the  soul  of  man  has 
not  yet  developed  into  the  flower  of  perfection.  In- 
stead of  being  on  the  last  stage  of  the  journey  to 
the  goal  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  mankind  is  rather 


GROWING  BY  CONFLICT  31 

just  beginning  to  realize  the  marvellous  heights  and 
distances  which  reach  far  ahead.  Out  of  the  awful 
struggle  going  on  to-day  between  the  forces  of 
righteousness  and  organized  selfishness,  lust  and 
hate,  there  will  come  new  moral  and  spiritual 
growth.  May  the  progress  achieved  be  worthy  the 
cost ! 

The  writers  of  the  New  Testament  fully  recog- 
nized the  slowly  developing  moral  and  spiritual 
Sources  of  mature  of  man.  Paul  especially  made 
Victory  much  of  this  fact.    He  wrote:  Now  we 

see  in  a  mirror  darkly.  Now  we  know  in  part,  but 
then  shall  we  know  fully  (I  Cor.  13).  Speaking  the 
truth  in  love  (ye)  may  grow  up  in  all  things  unto 
Him  who  is  the  head,  even  Christ  (Eph.  4:15). 
Peter  writes :  That  ye  may  grow  unto  salvation 
(I  Peter  2:2).  Grow  in  grace  and  knowledge  (H 
Peter  3:18).  These  teachers  recognized  the  weak- 
ness of  human  nature,  hut  they  also  sensed  its  glori- 
ous possibilities.  It  is  to  these  facts  that  they  seek 
to  bring  the  help  of  an  ever  present  and  loving  God. 
Sin  and  evil  are  awful  realities  which  are  not  fully 
explained.  They  are  conditions  with  which  man 
must  contend.  These  spiritual  leaders  declare  how 
man  may  overcome  sin  and  evil  and  so  insure  the 
growth  of  his  soul.  No  man  can  win  the  victory 
alone.  He  needs  the  help  of  One  who  knows  men 
better  than  they  know  themselves  and  at  the  same 


32    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

time  understands  God's  plans  for  a  perfected  and 
redeemed  humanity. 

There  is  no  need  of  anxiety  over  the  presence  of 
evil  in  the  world  when  we  know  that  Jesus  Christ 
helps  us  to  overcome  it.  The  significance  of  each 
victory  lies  not  only  in  the  victory  itself  but  also  in 
the  added  vigor  of  life  gained  from  the  conflict. 
One  victory  only  leads  to  another  conflict.  On  the 
battlefield  of  life  we  may  win  some  battles  and  lose 
others,  but  in  the  end  we  shall  win  the  campaign 
if  we  follow  the  Great  Commander.  In  all  our 
contests  we  shall  discover  that  we  have  been  grow- 
ing into  the  fulness  of  the  stature  of  Christ. 

The  realization  of  a  changing  earth,  of  a  grow- 
ing humanity,  of  a  developing  society,  of  onward- 
struggling  souls,  is  a  challenge  to  seize  upon  the 
divine  sources  of  power  available  to  make  mankind 
what  it  ought  to  be.  The  world  and  all  that  is 
therein  is  still  in  the  process  of  making  and  God  is 
still  the  maker  of  it.  He  is  working  through 
agencies  called  natural  and  through  mankind  to 
make  in  the  end  a  redeemed  humanity,  the  King- 
dom of  God. 

For  Study  and  Discussion 

What,  in  the  main,  differentiates  the  living  or- 
ganism from  inert  matter;  the  higher  forms  of  life 


GROWING  BY  CONFLICT  33 

from  the  lower?  What  moral  and  spiritual  value  is 
there  in  the  fact  that  Jesus  grew?  Why  was  He 
SO'  interested  in  growing  things? 

What  is  the  relation  of  physical  to  spiritual  life? 
What  results  when  growth  ceases  in  a  person's 
moral  and  spiritual  life?  How  can  this  be  pre- 
vented? If  heredity,  environment,  education  and 
struggle  each  play  their  part  does  the  obligation  still 
rest  upon  each  of  us  to  be  full-grown?    Why? 

Do  you  think  Shakespeare's  words  are  true: 
'There  is  some  soul  of  goodness  in  things  evil"? 
What  relation  has  the  struggle  against  evil  to  this 
soul  of  goodness?  Outline  some  specific  elements 
of  moral  and  spiritual  growth  coming  to  the  world 
from  the  present  conflict.  Are  they  coming  from 
the  war  or  from  men's  struggle  against  the  evil 
which  caused  the  war?    Illustrate. 

What  do  you  consider  were  the  chief  factors  in 
the  spiritual  greatness  of  Isaiah,  Paul,  St.  Francis, 
Martin  Luther?  Why  is  it  that  these  men  were 
more  conscious  of  and  sensitive  to  sin  than  their 
contemporaries?  What  made  Jesus  most  sensi- 
tive to  the  existence  of  sin  in  the  world?  What  is 
the  unique  place  of  Christianity  in  relation  to  the 
problem  of  sin?  What  is  the  significance  for  the 
coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  of  this  hope  of  vic- 
tory in  your  struggle  against  evil? 


THE  CETURCH 


Ill 

THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  WORLD  CRISIS 

Jesus  chose  a  company  of  disciples  to  carry  on 

his  work.     He  Hved  on  such  intimate  terms  with 

these   men   that   they  became  inspired 
Jesus  .  ,    ,  .         .   .      ,  .     ,  ,  .       .   .        f 

and  the         With  his  spirit,  his  hopes,  his  vision  tor 

Church  ^j^^  world.     Jesus  desired  relationship 

so  intimate  that  in  actual  living  He  and  his  dis- 
ciples should  be  inseparable.  He  illustrated  that 
relationship  by  the  parable  of  the  vine  and  the 
branches.  He  said :  I  am  the  vine,  ye  are  the 
branches.  He  that  abideth  in  me  and  I  in  him,  the 
same  beareth  much  fruit;  .  .  .  for  apart  from  me 
ye  can  do  nothing  (John  15:1-5).  Jesus  did  not 
start  a  new  organization.  He  knew  that  the  world 
needed  not  new  systems  or  new  machinery,  but 
new  life.  In  gathering  together  the  disciples  Jesus 
did  not  start  a  new,  carefully  organized  religious 
sect.  He  gathered  them  "that  they  might  be  with 
Him."  By  this  intimate  fellowship  He  sought  to 
make  them  a  part  of  Himself.     This  purpose  was 

37 


38    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

the  soul  at  the  center  of  the  organization  of  the 
church. 

The  organization  grew  up  simply  and  naturally 
around  the  inspiring  leadership  and  the  sense  of  the 
personal  spiritual  presence  of  the  risen  Lord.  Or- 
ganization came  because  there  was  work  to  be  done. 
The  work  could  not  be  done  wisely  and  effectively 
without  some  system.  Deacons,  bishops,  creeds 
arose  because  through  these  agencies  the  spirit  of 
the  Master  was  more  successfully  spread  abroad 
through  the  world.  The  disciples  soon  discovered 
that  there  was  power  in  living,  working  and  pray- 
ing together.  The  power,  however,  was  not  in  the 
wheels  that  made  up  the  organization,  but  in  the 
spirit  at  the  center  of  it.  The  power  lay  in  the  con- 
viction that  the  disciples  were  co-workers  with 
their  risen  Lord.  In  other  words,  to  the  men  of 
the  early  Apostolic  Church,  their  fellowship  and 
communion  was  not  an  organization  but  an  organ- 
ism. It  was  not  a  system  of  officers  and  commit- 
tees driven  by  an  outside  force ;  it  was  a  living  thing 
of  which  the  animating  principle  was  Jesus  the 
Christ.  Mark  closed  his  gospel  with  the  dynamic 
of  the  church  when  he  wrote:  They  (the  disciples) 
went  forth  and  preached  everywhere,  the  Lord 
working  with  them,  and  confirming  the  word  by 
the  signs  that  followed  (Mark  16:20). 

The   Church  was  not  very  old  before  it  came 


THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  WORLD  CRISIS       39 

to  be  known  as  "the  body  of  Christ,"  and  by  this 
name  it  has  been  called  ever  since.  It  is  the  truest 
definition  for  the  Christian  Church  for  any  age. 
Paul  wrote  (I  Cor.  14:27)  :  Ye  are  the  body  of 
Christ.  Donald  Hankey  begins  the  opening  chap- 
ter of  his  volume  on  'The  Church  and  the  War'' 
with  the  sentence,  "The  object  of  these  papers  is  to 
try  to  help  find  out  how  we  can  make  the  Church  a 
better,  more  efficient,  a  more  vital,  a  more  healthy 
body  for  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

There  have  been  times  in  the  history  of  the 
church  when  it  became,  to  the  outward  view  of 
men  almost,  if  not  completely,  an  organization.  The 
machinery  was  more  apparent  than  the  spirit  which 
was  supposed  to  animate  it.  Nevertheless  the  soul 
of  the  church  has  always  been  active  in  spite  of 
appearances  to  the  contrary.  The  church  has  grown 
in  power  and  influence  through  nineteen  centuries. 
It  has  been  assailed  by  hostile  forces  of  evil  with- 
out, by  heretics  and  unsympathetic  friends  within. 
There  are  many  people  to-day  who  are  especially 
interested  in  pointing  out  the  weaknesses  of  the 
Christian  Church.  That  the  church  has  many  de- 
fects no  one  will  deny.  As  long  as  the  church  is 
made  up  of  short-sighted,  sinful,  stumbling  men  and 
women,  it  will  reveal  many  short-comings.  On  the 
other  hand,  as  long  as  the  church  is  "the  body  of 
Christ"  it  will  have  the  spiritual  insight  and  moral 


40    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

power  to  triumph  over  its  faults  and  mistakes.  In 
all  the  history  of  the  world,  there  has  been  no 
force  so  successful  as  the  Christian  Church  for 
keeping  alive  and  growing  the  spirit  of  vital  re- 
ligion in  the  souls  of  men. 

The  world  war  has  brought  upon  the  church  as 
upon  all  other  social  organizations  the  realization 
rr,j^  of  new   responsibilities.      It  has  corn- 

Church  pelled   a  new   self-examination  by  the 

World  church.     The   soldiers  in  the  training 

Crisis  camps  and  in  the  trenches  are  discuss- 

ing the  church  problem  anew.  Historic  beliefs  are 
under  a  new  fire  of  investigation.  Time-honored 
methods  of  work  are  subjected  to  severe  criticism. 
Some  chaplains  in  the  British  Army  are  asking  for 
the  elimination  of  the  Prayer  Book  from  the  serv- 
ices of  the  Church  of  England ;  others  are  demand- 
ing its  revision.  There  is  also  a  request  for  a  rec- 
ognition of  what  Donald  Hankey  in  *'A  Student  in 
Arms"  called  "the  religion  of  the  inarticulate." 

The  basis  for  faith  in  immortality  is  receiving  a 
fresh  analysis.  The  final  sacrifice  for  righteous- 
ness has  been  made  by  many  a  brave  young  soldier 
who  never  made  a  formal  public  confession  of  re- 
ligious faith.  ''Greater  love  hath  no  man  than 
this,  that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friend." 
These  are  a  few  of  the  new  problems  that  the 
conditions  of  our  day  are  bringing  before  the  church 


THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  WORLD  CRISIS       41 

for  a  solution.  The  parents  and  friends  of  these 
young  men  are  asking,  ''Have  not  these  men  by 
their  sacrifice  earned  a  place  in  the  heavenly  King- 
dom? 

There  are  pressing  practical  tasks  before  the 
Christian  Church  to-day.  One  is  the  task  of  bring- 
Unitv  ^^S  the  scattered  and  divided  forces  of 

Again  the   church   into   some   unity   of   effort 

against  evil  and  for  the  aggressive  promotion  of 
righteousness.  For  fifteen  hundred  years  there  was 
one  Christian  Church.  The  Protestant  Reformation 
introduced  many  new  movements.  It  inspired  a  new 
spirit  of  religion ;  it  gave  new  freedom  to  the  mind ; 
it  gave  a  new  sense  of  the  true  nature  and  purpose 
of  the  church.  But  with  the  spirit  of  religious  free- 
dom there  came  also  weakening  and  destructive 
divisions.  The  divisive  impulse  has  ever  since  been 
strong,  the  unifying  force  has  been  weak.  The  re- 
sult is  the  division  of  the  church  into  one  hundred 
and  eighty-six  different  forms  of  organizations !  In 
many  cities  and  towns  the  division  in  the  church 
hinders  all  statesmanlike  handling  of  the  religious 
problems.  The  forces  of  evil  are  often  victorious 
because  the  forces  of  righteousness  will  not  work 
together. 

The  Protestant  Church,  as  a  whole,  needs  some 
of  the  statesmanlike  vision  and  plan  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church.    A  cardinal  when  asked  about  the 


42    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

work  of  the  college  of  cardinals  in  Rome,  said,  *'We 
are  gathered  here  about  the  pope  as  a  board  of  di- 
rectors meets  with  the  president  of  a  great  business 
organization,  and  we  plan  for  the  extension  of  the 
Catholic  Church  over  the  whole  world  for  all  time 
to  come."  That  is  church  statesmanship!  In  these 
days  when  the  forces  of  evil  are  making  their  at- 
tacks against  righteousness  and  justice  with  an  un- 
precedented unity  of  effort,  there  comes  to  the 
churches  a  new  call  to  forget  all  minor  differences 
in  creed,  organization  and  systems  of  worship,  and 
to  begin  to  work  together  for  the  one  great  end  of 
bringing  the  Kingdom  of  God  upon  the  earth. 

It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  all  people  will  agree 
on  minor  methods  of  church  organization  or  on  de- 
tails of  worship.  Denominational  differences  are, 
to  a  certain  degree,  based  on  temperamental  differ- 
ences. The  person  who  finds  the  most  helpful  aid 
to  worship  through  the  external  ministrations  and 
symbols  of  candles,  music,  beautiful  robes  and  in- 
cense, will  get  little  inspiration  from  the  colorless, 
often  speechless  worship  of  the  Society  of  Friends. 
The  man  who  feels  the  need  of  an  address  or  ser- 
mon as  a  means  of  quickening  the  mind  and  con- 
science, will  never  be  satisfied  by  a  liturgy  alone. 
But  it  is  also  true  that  men  can  worship  in  the 
way  that  best  ministers  to  their  particular  religious 
needs,  and,  at  the  same  time,  cooperate  fully  in  the 


THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  WORLD  CRISIS       43 

great  tasks  of  the  church,  namely,  opposing  evil 
and  promoting  righteousness. 

One  of  the  potent  effects  of  the  war  on  the  church 
is  that  the  various  denominations  v^^ill  be  forced  into 
a  new  cooperation.  Men  of  all  denominations  and 
of  no  denomination  have  been  working,  struggling, 
dying  together  in  the  trenches  and  they  will  not  be 
gently  tolerant  of  any  faith  or  creed  that  claims  ex- 
clusive ^race  or  saving  power. 

The  church  in  the  present  crisis  has  a  new  call  to 
promote  a  new  spirit  of  democracy.  Democracy  is. 
World  ^^st  of  all,  not  a  problem  of  govern- 

Democracy  ment  but  of  the  church.  Democracy 
grew  out  of.  Christianity.  Jesus  Himself  was  the 
first  to  lay  down  the  principles  that  have  produced 
the  free  spirit  of  to-day,  not  only  in  religion  but  in 
government.  Democracy  is  the  greatest  word  in  the 
world  to-day.  The  entrance  of  America  into  the 
war  was  to  promote  democracy.  But  the  world 
does  not  yet  adequately  understand  the  meaning  of 
the  word. 

The  church  has  the  grave  responsibility  of  estab- 
lishing at  home  and  abroad  the  true  democracy. 
There  must  first  be  a  democracy  that  is  safe  for 
the  world.  Only  the  spirit  of  Christ  can  assure  this. 
Some  of  the  most  baneful  selfishness  the  world  has 
ever  seen  is  parading  to-day  under  the  name  of 
democracy!     Certain  groups  are  now  proclaiming 


44    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

a  democracy  which  would  not  be  safe  for  the  world 
because  each  group  seeks  its  own  welfare  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  welfare  of  other  social  groups.  Only 
the  Christian  spirit  which  assures  self-government, 
dictated  by  a  motive  of  unselfish  service,  can  ever 
promote  a  safe  kind  of  democracy.  Any  other 
kind  will  be  a  menace  to  the  world.  It  must  be 
clear,  then,  that  the  work  of  the  church  precedes 
and  accompanies  the  labors  of  statesmen,  diplomats, 
soldiers  or  sailors. 

The  Christian  people  in  the  church  must  hear  the 
call  for  a  new  loyalty  to  Christ  and  the  church.  There 
Intensified  ^^  great  need  for  a  new  realization  of  the 
Loyalty  sources  of  true  spiritual  insight,  noble 

personal  character  and  national  idealism.  These 
inspirations  come  ultimately  from  a  personal  rela- 
tion to  Christ.  The  church  seeks  to  cultivate  this 
relationship  in  men.  From  these  high  standards 
many  people  are  drifting  away  through  a  lack,  not 
of  essential  faith,  but  of  true,  individual  loyalty. 
There  is  an  alarming  drift  away  from  the  sense  of 
duty  of  going  to  church  to  worship  God.  Church 
attendance  is,  with  many  people,  a  matter  of 
whether  or  not  they  like  the  minister  and  his  preach- 
ing. Some  go  to  church  .if  they  ''feel  like  it" ;  oth- 
erwise they  stay  at  home.  The  automobile  and 
Sunday  newspaper  are  more  attractive  to  many  peo- 
ple than   the   church   service.      People   sometimes 


THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  WORLD  CRISIS       45 

claim  that  there  is  more  spiritual  power  to  be 
found  in  worshipping  God  under  the  trees  alone 
than  in  a  church  with  other  people.  The  history  of 
religious  inspiration  points  in  another  direction. 
The  prophet  Isaiah  received  his  marvellous  vision 
as  he  was  worshipping  in  the  temple  (Isaiah  6:1- 
13).  Jesus  used  to  go  apart  to  pray  alone,  but  He 
seems  tO'  have  had  a  regular  habit  of  going  to  the 
synagogue  to  worship  on  the  Sabbath  (Luke  4:16). 
Peter  and  John,  veritable  dynamos  of  spiritual 
power  in  the  early  church,  habitually  went  to  the 
temple  to  worship  and  to  pray  (Acts  3:1).  Other 
people  allow  their  loyalty  to  cool  because  they  feel 
that  to  be  religiously  minded  and  to  do  good  in 
one's  own  way  is  sufficient. 

But  the  modern  way  of  doing  things  is  by  or- 
ganized, co-operative  effort.  A  single  Christian  in 
the  world's  conflict  with  sin  is  of  no  more  use  than 
is  a  single  American  soldier  trying  to  win  the  Euro- 
pean war !  There  is  great  danger  in  being  satisfied 
with  a  general  attitude  of  good  will  to  mankind  in 
general,  at  the  same  neglecting  any  specific  acts  of 
brotherliness.  A  person  ought  to  be  fully  loyal  to 
some  one  church,  to  worship  with  its  members, 
work  through  its  organizations,  pray  for  its  pros- 
perity and  peace. 

Almost  all  good  things  in  our  civilized  life  to-day 
are  directly  or  indirectly  the  product  of  the  influ- 


46    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

ence  of  the  Christian  church.  The  church  is  the 
inspiration  behind  a  multitude  of  helpful  agencies. 
Without  the  church  these  other  organizations  would 
not  last  a  week.  The  mighty  work  of  the  Young 
Men's  and  Young  Women's  Christian  Associations 
in  the  various  forms  of  war  service  is  essentially 
the  work  of  the  church.  When  Gypsy  Smith,  the 
noted  evangelist,  came  to  this  country,  after  spend- 
ing four  years  in  working  with  the  British  soldiers, 
he  said,  'The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  is 
the  communication  trench  between  the  church  and 
the  army."  The  Red  Cross  is  a  healing  streak  of 
red  on  the  arm  of  the  White  Cross. 

There  is  special  danger,  during  the  days  when 
people  are  so  busy  knitting,  making  bandages  and 
raising  money,  that  the  sources  of  inspiration  will 
be  neglected.  We  shall  fall  into  the  habit  of  think- 
ing that  system,  organization,  series  of  "drives"* 
will  accomplish  anything.  Because  of  the  extra 
stress  and  strain  of  life,  men  need  more  than  ever 
before  to  take  time  for  prayer,  worship,  study  of 
God's  word,  and  quiet  meditation.  It  will  avail  us 
little  as  men  and  women  with  immortal  souls  to 
win  a  great  war  for  political  liberty  and  find  our- 
selves at  the  end  enslaved  by  a  system  of  political 
or  social  machinery.  It  was  written  of  One  who 
was  the  Captain  of  our  salvation  and  the  world's 
greatest  minister  of  social  service  that  He  found 


THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  WORLD  CRISIS       47 

it  necessary,  in  the  busiest  days  of  his  Hfe,  to 
spend  whole  nights  in  prayer.  Can  his  followers 
expect  to  win  great  victories  by  a  process  any  less 
exacting? 

It  is  well  to  remember,  while  armies  are  fighting 
for  a  world  peace  and  for  a  world  safe  for  democ- 
^,  racy,  that  the  Christian  church  is  the 

Permanent  greatest  peace-making  force  in  the 
of  the  world.     The  peace  propaganda  of  the 

Church  church  is  going  steadily  on  in  time  of 

war.  While  our  soldiers  fight  for  peace  in  Bel- 
gium and  Flanders,  the  soldiers  of  the  Cross  are 
working  for  peace  in  the  homes  of  the  people  of 
India,  China,  and  the  islands  of  the  sea.  The  great- 
est forces  for  peace  are  not  armies  or  navies  or 
high  explosives.  The  most  powerful  agency  is  not 
any  particular  form  of  government.  The  greatest 
force  for  peace  is  the  everlasting  self-giving  love  of 
God  as  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ.  That  is  why  the 
angels  could  sing  "Peace  on  earth,  good  will  to 
men'*  when  men  were  to  go  on  fighting  one  an- 
other for  twenty  long  centuries.  The  time  element 
is  not  of  any  great  significance  in  the  presence  of 
the  eternal  and  timeless.  That  is  why  we  still  be- 
lieve absolutely  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  peace 
and  the  universal  reign  of  good  will  even  in  the 
presence  of  the  worst  carnage  in  the  history  of 
the  world. 


48    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

Rocks  may  be  blasted  away  by  dynamite,  but  the 
crushing  of  rocks  on  the  grandest  scale  is  wrought 
by  the  quiet  forces  of  water,  wind  and  frost.  In 
like  manner  some  of  the  evils  of  the  world  may 
have  to  be  dealt  with  at  times  by  cannon  and  battle- 
ships; but  these  agencies  are  temporary  and  only 
partially  effective  as  compared  with  the  ever  active, 
eternal,  quiet,  unseen  force  of  the  love  of  God 
growing  in  the  hearts  of  men.  Some  evils  must  be 
blown  up  with  dynamite;  but  most  of  the  evils  of 
the  world  will  be  conquered  by  an  active  good  will 
in  the  hearts  of  man,  implanted  by  the  example  and 
ministry  of  Jesus  Christ. 

It  is  well  to  remember  that  the  great  word  in  the 
early  church  was  ''power."  It  is  the  same  word 
from  which  our  word  "dynamite"  comes.  To  the. 
men  of  the  early  church  faith  in  Christ  was  a  power 
which  revolutionized  the  inner  life,  caused  cataclys- 
mic convulsions  in  the  social  order  and  lifted  em- 
pires off  their  foundations.  This  same  earnest, 
quiet  power  of  Christ  through  the  church,  which  is 
his  body,  is  doing  its  marvellous  work  every  day 
over  the  whole  world.  The  leading,  energizing,  in- 
spiring agency  for  the  gaining  of  victory  over  evil 
and  the  maintenance  of  lasting  peace  on  earth 
through  good  will  to  men  is  worthy  of  the  best 
service  and  the  loyal  devotion  of  every  man  and 
woman. 


THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  WORLD  CRISIS       49 

For  Study  and  Discussion 

How  far  can  religion  be  effectively  organized? 
How  far  is  religion  an  individual  problem  and  how 
far  a  social  one?  Why  did  Jesus  seek  to  perpetu- 
ate his  gospel  by  a  band  of  disciples  rather  than  by 
a  book?  Is  the  church  an  organism  or  merely  an 
organization  ?     Why  ? 

Do  you  know  the  historical  reasons  for  the  ex- 
istence of  the  different  denominations,  as  Presby- 
terian, Methodist,  Episcopal,  and  others?  How 
can  the  average  layman  be  most  useful  in  promot- 
ing church  unity?  Can  we  ever  expect  to  have  one 
church?     Did  Jesus  expect  it? 

What  influence  will  a  world  free  from  autocracy 
have  upon  religion  and  ecclesiastical  authority? 
What  place  would  an  autocratic  church  have  in  a 
free  world  ?  What  do  you  consider  to  be  the  rela- 
tion of  politics  to  religion  ?  Why  should  a  preacher 
discuss  problems  of  democracy  in  the  pulpit?  What 
is  the  bearing  of  the  labor  movement  on  Christian 
democracy?    What  is  the  church's  responsibility? 

How  far  are  social  settlements,  welfare  work 
and  relief  organizations  indebted  to  the  church? 
Why  is  corporate  worship  a  part  of  Christian  de- 
mocracy ?  What  values  are  endangered  by  knitting 
in  church  during  war  time?  What  great  tasks  of 
the  church  challenge  all  our  loyalty? 


SLACKERS 


IV 

THE  PERIL  OF  THE  SLACKER 

The  vigorous  enforcement  of  the  Selective  Serv- 
ice Law  for  providing  soldiers  for  the  army  has 
brought  the  slacker  into  striking  promi- 
Slackcr  nence.    After  each  draft  there  have  ap- 

^P^"*  peared  in  the  newspapers  long  lists  of 

names  of  young  men  who  have  not  answered  the 
call.  Both  tragic  and  pathetic  are  the  stories  told 
by  members  of  the  draft  boards  and  by  examining 
physicians,  of  the  deceptive  arguments  and  the  de- 
ceitful schemes  by  which  some  men  seek  to  escape 
from  the  duty  of  serving  their  country  and  the 
world.  Some,  unable  to  escape  the  compulsion  of 
going  to  the  training  camp,  finish  their  revolt  there 
by  refusing  to  wear  the  uniform  or  to  obey  orders. 
While  the  slacker  is  for  the  moment  a  prominent 
figure,  he  is  by  no  means  a  new  one.  The  demands 
of  the  war  have  only  served  to  bring  out  into  a  new 
light  an  old  and  ever  present  type  of  man.  Young 
men  become  slackers  in  relation  to  the  military  sys- 

53 


54    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

tern  because  they  have  within  them  the  slacker 
spirit. 

There  are  few  people  of  any  place  or  age  who  do 
not  stand  in  peril  of  the  soul-destructive  influence 
of  the  slacker  spirit.  The  impulse  to  avoid  hard 
and  dangerous  duty  lurks  in  the  breast  of  every 
one.  Even  brave  and  heroic  men  at  times  confess 
to  the  temptation  to  yield  to  fear  and  to  the  im- 
pulse to  inaction  In  the  presence  of  danger.  So 
characteristic  is  this  weakness  in  human  character 
that  the  New  Testament  gives  great  attention  to 
the  method  of  dealing  with  it.  Jesus  handles  the 
problem  with  characteristic  understanding  and  sym- 
pathy. There  are  many  incidental  occasions  when 
this  spirit  of  the  slacker  is  the  subject  of  his  inter- 
est. There  are  a  few  places  where  He  makes  the 
analysis  of  the  slacker  character  with  unusual  clear- 
ness and  force.  The  study  of  these  incidents  in  the 
light  of  the  interest  of  to-day  brings  timely  aid  in 
these  days  of  great  fear  and  suffering. 

One  of  the  perils  arising  from  the  slacker  spirit 
is  the  deadening  effect  of  not  sharing  with  others 
in  the  great  enterprises  of  life.  Jesus 
with  brought  this  truth  out  in  the  incident  of 

Others  ^^iq  rich  young  ruler.    This  young  man 

was  a  slacker.  He  was  drafted  by  the  Captain  of 
man's  salvation  to  share  with  others  in  the  conflict 
for  a  new  human  brotherhood.     The   appeal   of 


THE  PERIL  OF  THE  SLACKER  55 

Jesus  struck  him  at  the  point  of  his  most  vital  in- 
terest, his  material  wealth.  Jesus  saw  that  the 
young  man  had  riches  of  personality  far  greater  in 
value  which  ought  to  be  shared  with  a  needy  world.' 
That  service  would  make  him  richer  still  in  the  es- 
sential qualities  of  life.  He  could  not  have  gone 
out  to  give  his  money  without  making  new  friend- 
ships, forming  new  associations,  becoming  stirred 
by  new  sympathies.  He  would  not  only  have  be- 
come a  philanthropist,  he  would  have  become  inter- 
ested in  the  science  of  philanthropy.  He  would 
have  found  himself  associating  in  a  new  relation- 
ship, not  only  with  those  who  received  because  of 
their  need,  but  also  with  those  who  give  because 
it  is  the  greatest  pleasure. 

The  slacker  in  military  service  to-day  who  by  any 
method  or  for  any  reason  escapes  army  service, 
misses  one  of  the  most  thrilling  experiences  of  life, 
that  of  learning,  working,  suffering  with  other  men. 
He  misses  the  initiation  into  the  great  brotherhood 
of  national  service,  which  is  greater  than  any  fra- 
ternity. Few  young  men  know  much  about  their 
fellow-men.  The  very  nature  of  modern  social 
organization  separates  men  into  small  groups.  The 
average  man's  knowledge  of  men  is  usually  limited 
to  an  acquaintance  with  the  men  and  women  of  his 
own  social  class.  Army  experiences  are  making  op- 
portunities for  wider  contacts  than  young  men  have 


56    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

ever  before  enjoyed.  Young  men  from  all  social 
classes,  from  many  nationalities,  and  from  all  walks 
of  life,  come  and  live  and  study  and  work  to- 
gether. 

In  this  new  and  intimate  relationship  young  men 
are  given  an  opportunity  to  know  their  fellow-men, 
tO'  feel  the  power  of  a  great  common  effort  for  a 
common  ideal,  tO'  sense  for  the  first  time  the  relation 
of  the  individual  to  the  great  human  whole.  The 
slacker  misses  all  this.  ''The  proper  study  of  man- 
kind is  man,"  said  Pope.  So  it  is  that  the  experi- 
ences in  army  life  are  to  most  men  the  most  broad- 
ening opportunities  for  education.  Even  the  young 
men  who  go  out  from  college  give  testimony  to 
the  splendid  training  coming  out  of  their  service  for 
the  nation. 

A  young  college  graduate  who  entered  the  army 
after  two  years  of  teaching  wrote  to  a  friend,  "We 
feel  more  strongly  than  ever  our  personal  respon- 
sibility for  a  proper  outcome  of  this  great  struggle. 
All  of  us  know  that  this  army  life  is  a  splendid  edu- 
cation that  will  make  us  more  valuable  citizens  when 
we  get  back  to  civilian  Ufe.  I  am  going  to  be  a 
stronger  teacher  for  this  experience.  The  army 
is  the  greatest  school  in  the  world,  and  I  never  had 
so  strongly  impressed  upon  me  before  the  great  les- 
sons of  precision  and  decision,  of  discipline,  exact- 
ness (not  approximation)  and  uniformity." 


THE  PERIL  OF  THE  SLACKER  57 

It  is  well  to  remember  that  what  the  call  of  pa- 
triotism has  offered  in  the  way  of  new  opportuni- 
ties of  common  fellowship  and  for  the  understand- 
ing of  human  nature,  Jesus  has  offered  to  men  for 
nearly  two  thousand  years.  Early  in  his  own  min- 
istry He  drafted  a  small  company  and  trained  them 
to  be  soldiers  of  the  Cross.  "Ye  have  not  chosen 
me  but  I  have  chosen  you,"  he  said.  The  members 
of  that  company  were  recruited  from  men  of  a  wide 
range  of  temperament  and  occupation.  There  were 
fishermen  and  a  tax  gatherer.  The  impulsive  man 
studied  in  the  same  school  with  the  man  of  a  deep 
affectionate  nature.  Jesus  put  side  by  side  the 
most  conservative  adherent  to  the  Roman  authority, 
Matthew  the  Publican,  and  the  anarchist  of  that 
day,  Simon  the  Zealot,  a  man  who  believed  that  war 
and  revolution  were  the  surest  remedies  of  politi- 
cal trouble.  There  is  no  greater  evidence  of  the 
power  of  Jesus  than  his  ability  to  enable  these  two 
men  tO'  work  together  for  a  common  ideal  which 
was  radically  different  from  the  ideas  of  either  of 
them.  Jesus  Himself  mingled  with  all  classes  of 
people  and  He  trained  his  disciples  to  do  the  same. 
In  spite  of  all  this  teaching  and  example  the 
modern  Christian  is  still  too  much  of  a  slacker.  His 
own  personal  affairs,  his  own  social  class,  his  own 
selfish  ambitions,  dominate  his  outlook  on  the  world 
and  humanity.     The  stimulus  of  the  war  has  com- 


58    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

pelled  a  new  self-analysis  in  many  young  men  and 
women.  Apart  from  this  compulsion  they  should 
study  their  lives  with  the  purpose  to  broaden  their 
interests  and  sympathies.  A  fresh  consideration  of 
the  program  of  Jesus  for  a  young  man's  life  will 
produce  the  most  satisfactory  results.  Out  of  the 
war  there  comes  to  those  who  stay  at  home  a  new 
summons  to  forsake  all  traditional  social  views  that 
limit  in  any  way  the  broadest  sympathies  and  the 
widest  service.  The  way  in  which  the  people  at 
home  are  working  together  in  a  united  patriotic 
service  does  for  them  what  service  is  doing  for  the 
men  in  the  field.  Rich  and  poor,  educated  and  un- 
educated, all  work  together  for  the  Red  Cross, 
Liberty  Loans  and  many  other  patriotic  agencies. 
It  is  one  of  the  purposes  of  God  to  teach  men  even 
through  the  tragedy  of  war  the  realization  of  the 
joy  and  power  of  working  together. 

The  slacker  is  sure  to  miss  the  personal  develop- 
ment that  comes  from  engaging  in  a  new  enterprise. 
The  army  levels  up  as  well  as  down.  It 
veloped  helps  the  soldier  to  understand  human 
Resources  nature,  and  gives  him  broader  sympa- 
thies for  his  fellow-men.  It  also  helps  the  soldier 
to  understand  himself;  it  draws  out  undreamed-of 
sources  of  power  and  heroism.  In  the  organization 
of  army  life,  in  the  opportunities  of  hard  and  peril- 
ous service,  the  essential  qualities  of  manhood  and 


THE  PERIL  OF  THE  SLACKER  59 

character  are  tried  as  gold  in  the  fire.  In  the  fur- 
nace of  war  many  characters  are  transformed;  many 
of  them  find  the  incentive  and  resources  of  a  new 
power  in  life. 

Jesus  had  clearly  in  mind  this  peril  that  lay  in 
the  path  of  the  slacker  in  life's  broad  fields  of  serv- 
ice. The  incident  is  related  of  Jesus'  draft  of  two 
men  to  enter,  under  his  command,  the  service  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  Both  were  slackers.  One 
pleaded  as  an  excuse  the  duty  of  winding  up  his 
family  estate,  the  other  of  fulfilling  the  traditional 
formalities  of  his  social  set.  "And  he  said  unto 
another,  Follow  me.  But  he  said,  Lord,  suffer  me 
first  to  go  and  bury  my  father.  But  he  said  unto 
him.  Leave  the  dead  to  bury  their  own  dead,  but 
go  thou  and  publish  abroad  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
And  another  also  said,  I  will  follow  thee,  Lord; 
but  first  suffer  me  to  bid  farewell  to  them  that  are 
in  my  house.  But  Jesus  said  unto  him,  No  man, 
having  put  his  hand  to  the  plough,  and  looking  back, 
is  fit  for  the  Kingdom  of  God"  (Luke  9:59-62). 
Jesus'  thought  is  not  only  of  the  revelation  of  the 
unfitness  of  these  men,  but  also  of  how  consecration 
to  the  Kingdom  of  God  would  fit  these  men  to  do 
great  things. 

What  did  not  these  men  miss?  Here  were  men 
whose  names  might  have  ranked  in  the  world's  his- 
tory with  those  of  Peter  and  John.     They  remain 


6o    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

examples  of  the  nameless  slackers!  These  men 
missed  the  greatest  source  of  personal  development 
the  world  has  ever  known — association  with  Jesus 
Christ. 

The  marvellous  thing  in  Jesus'  relation  to  his  dis- 
ciples was  the  way  in  which  that  association  with 
Him  developed  them.  The  fisherman  becomes  the 
evangelist,  the  extreme  socialist  becomes  the  mis- 
sionary. From  the  day  of  Jesus'  own  bodily  pres- 
ence with  men  to  this  present  time,  the  response  to 
his  call  to  discipleship  has  been  the  source  of  the 
most  remarkable  personal  development  the  world 
has  known.  By  this  method,  simple  untutored  citi- 
zens have  become  great  preachers  and  missionaries; 
bad  men  have  become  saints;  cowards  have  been 
turned  into  heroes,  and  multitudes  ^'out  of  weak- 
ness have  been  made  strong." 

Personality  and  its  development  are  themes  of 
popular  interest  to-day.  Many  are  the  philosophies 
and  systems  advanced  by  many  teachers  for  the 
cultivation  of  personality.  The  German  philoso- 
pher Nietzsche  and  his  disciples  have  advocated  a 
system  that  appeals  strongly  to  many  ambitious 
young  men  and  women.  It  is  the  method  of  the 
superman.  Let  every  person  exert  his  own  individ- 
ual selfish  impulse  and  will.  Let  self-restraint  of 
any  sort  be  abandoned.  The  way  to  be  great  is  to 
recognize  no  authority  ^and  to  ride  ruthlessly  over 


THE  PERIL  OF  THE  SLACKER  6i 

any  person  or  thing  that  interferes  with  selfish  am- 
bitions. 

Every  thinking  person  is  familiar  with  the  re- 
sults of  such  a  philosophy  in  the  world  to-day.  It 
has  plunged  the  world  into  carnage  and  blood.  In 
the  presence  of  such  a  tragedy  we  turn  again  with 
fresh  faith  and  hope  to  Jesus'  method  for  the 
growth  and  development  of  human  character,  the 
method  not  of  the  superman,  but  of  full  allegiance 
to  the  principle  of  self-giving.  "He  that  is  greatest 
among  you  shall  be  your  servant.  And  whosoever 
shall  exalt  himself  shall  be  humbled,  and  whoso- 
ever shall  humble  himself  shall  be  exalted."  (Matt. 
23:11-12.) 

The  most  common  type  of  slacker  is  the  one  who 
performs  small  tasks  in  a  small  way.  Jesus  drew 
the  picture  of  this  sort  of  a  slacker  in  his  parable 
Small  of  the  talents.     This  was  the  man  who 

Things  ^qqJ^  ^j^^  talent  from  the  hand  of  his 

in  a 

Small  Way    master  and  went  and  hid  it  in  the  earth. 

The  peril  into  which  this  slacker  fell  may  be  shown 
by  some  striking  contrasts  in  the  different  ways  in 
which  a  task  may  be  performed.  A  great  task  may 
be  handled  in  a  large  way.  This  is  the  method  in 
which  the  colossal  problems  of  the  war  are  being 
met.  Money  is  raised  to  finance  the  war  by  bil- 
lions of  dollars,  by  nation-wide  organizations  reach- 
ing like  a  network  into  every  nook  and  comer  of 


62    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

the  entire  country.  The  construction  of  ships,  aero- 
planes, and  army  encampments  has  been  pushed 
without  regard  to  expense  in  order  to  meet  the 
mighty  needs  of  an  international  crusade.  Side 
by  side  with  this  there  are  revealed  some  examples 
of  men  who  are  doing  great  things  in  a  small  way — 
profiteering  in  the  necessities  of  war  supplies,  strik- 
ing workmen  who  think  first  of  all,  not  of  their 
country's  or  of  the  world's  need,  but  of  their  own 
interests ;  citizens  indulging  in  race  riots,  stirred  by 
the  passion  of  hatred,  not  by  the  fire  of  patriotism. 
The  majority  of  young  people  not  in  war  service 
seem  to  themselves  far  away  from  the  thrill  and 
enthusiasm  that  come  from  an  immediate  share  in 
war  work.  They  feel  as  if  they  were  in  some  eddy 
while  the  great  rushing  river  of  life  sweeps  on- 
ward. They  seem  to  be  spectators  of  some  far-off 
drama  which  concerns  their  life  vitally,  but  with 
which  they  can  have  little  personal  touch.  In  com- 
parison with  the  great  world  movements  and  na- 
tional organizations  the  daily  work  of  the  average 
person  seems  to  be  pitifully  small.  It  is  easy  in 
such  a  situation  for  a  man  to  belittle  himself  and 
his  work.  Because  the  work  seems  small  there 
comes  a  great  temptation  to  be  a  slacker,  to  do  the 
small  thing  in  a  small  way.  That  was  what  the 
man  with  one  talent  did.  He  took  a  small  thing 
and  did  the  least  possible  thing  with  it.     The  dis- 


THE  PERIL  OF  THE  SLACKER  63 

appointed  master  felt  that  the  servant  should  have 
done  better.  That  was  the  tragedy  of  it — there 
lies  the  peril  for  the  slacker.  It  is  just  as  easy  to 
do  better!  It  takes  no  more  effort  to  put  money 
into  the  bank  than  it  does  to  put  it  into. a  hole  in 
the  ground. 

The  aim  of  Jesus  was  to  teach  men  how  to  do 
small  things  in  a  large  way.  How  did  He  do  it? 
In  a  Large  ^^  showed  in  the  first  place  that  the 
Way  end  and  aim  of  all  endeavor  was  char- 

acter. The  value  and  importance  of  any  work  lay 
not  in  its  size  but  in  what  it  yielded  in  character, 
discipline,  training  to  the  worker.  Jesus  gave  man 
a  sense  of  his  eternal  destiny  and  revealed  how  each 
act,  no  matter  how  small,  was  related  to  it.  The 
way  of  true  worth  lay  in  doing  the  small  thing  in 
a  large  way,  because  the  result  was  inseparably  re- 
lated to  the  great  thing. 

Jesus'  own  history  is  largely  the  story  of  one  who 
did  small  things  in  a  large  way.  He  had  an  un- 
shakable conviction  that  each  word  and  deed,  com- 
monplace in  itself,  yet  was  related  to  the  redemp- 
tion of  mankind.  He  was  a  peasant,  trained  as  a 
carpenter.  In  the  eyes  of  the  world  his  followers 
were  few  and  unimportant.  His  work  was  chiefly 
with  the  poor,  the  weak,  the  common  people.  His 
most  important  words  were  spoken  to  one  or  two 
people,  or  at  best  to  the  circle  of  twelve.    Even  his 


64    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

sufferings  and  death  were  unnoticed  by  the  histo- 
rians of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  the  leading  men  of 
his  own  race  regarded  Him  as  an  impostor !  Yet  ' 
with  what  mastery  He  met  each  occasion!  He 
never  shghted  any  one  or  made  haste  in  performing 
any  duty.  Each  thing  was  performed  with  a  sense 
of  its  relation  to  eternity. 

It  is  easy  for  the  soldier  to  feel  the  relation  of 
his  life  and  service  to  the  great  movement  of  which 
he  is  a  part,  because  of  the  great  organization  of 
the  army.  He  is  assigned  his  particular  task;  some 
superior  officer  is  always  at  hand  tO'  inspect  or  to 
give  directions.  The  soldier  may  be  only  a  cog  in 
the  machinery  of  the  army,  but  if  he  is  not  in  his 
place  the  machine  does  not  run  smoothly.  And 
more  than  that,  the  soldier  is  usually  conscious  of 
the  great  aims  and  purposes  for  which  he  has  joined 
the  colors.  Nevertheless,  a  large  part  of  the  sol- 
dier's work  is  without  interest  or  glory.  In  order 
to  be  a  good  soldier  he  too  must  consciously  seek  to 
do  the  small  things  in  a  large  way.  In  a  letter  of 
a  French  soldier  to  his  mother  are  the  words,  "I 
know  not  whither  destiny  leads  me,  but  it  is  not, 
this  I  am  sure  of,  towards  the  haughty  and  artificial 
regions  of  speculation,  but  rather  in  the  way  of  all 
the  smaller  duties  of  each  day.  And  into  this  work 
I  must  carry  a  spirit  awake  to  every  sensation." 

To  the  person  tempted  to  become  a  slacker  in 


THE  PERIL  OF  THE  SLACKER  65 

the  performance  of  the  small  apparently  unimport- 
ant work  in  any  sphere  of  life,  there  comes  with 
new  power  the  helpful  ministry  of  Jesus.  He  acts 
as  the  commanding  general  of  the  life  campaign. 
He  reveals  the  absolute  necessity  of  faithfulness  on 
the  part  of  each  individual.  He  encourages  each 
soldier  of  the  Cross  in  hours  of  depression,  and  in 
the  hour  of  greatest  danger  gives  him  strength  to 
*'carry  on."  With  the  .larger  visions  of  life's  mean- 
ing before,  and  the  energizing  power  of  God  be- 
hind, each  man  and  woman  may  be  sure  of  the 
eternal  reward  that  comes  from  doing  even  the 
small  things  in  a  large  way. 

Let  not  thy  hands  be  slack, 

Haste  to  the  fray! 
Dream  not  of  turning  back; 

Life  is  not  play  ! 
Gird  thou  thine  armor  on, 
Fight  till  the  battle's  won, 
Then  shall  thy  Lord's,  "Well  done," 

More  than  repay! 

Let  not  thy  hands  be  slack. 

Fear  not !    Be  strong ! 
Cease  not  to  make  attack 

On   every  wrong. 
Press  on  for  truth  and  right — 
Hold  high  the  Gospel  light. 
Expel  the  dirge  of  night 

With  Heaven's  song. 

— S.  E.  Burrow. 


66    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

For  Study  and  Discussion 

What  is  the  fundamental  difference  in  charac- 
ter between  the  slacker  and  the  man  eager  to  serve  ? 
Is  being  afraid  in  itself  cowardly?  What  makes 
the  difference?  The  army  slacker  is  punished  by 
imprisonment;  is  the  moral  and  spiritual  slacker 
punished  also?  How ?  Why  is  there  not  more  com- 
pulsion on  God's  part  in  his  dealings  with  men? 

What  is  the  relative  value  of  property  and  life? 
If  the  government  drafts  life  for  war  service  why 
not  property  also?  How  is  taxation  a  draft  on 
wealth?  Would  it  be  reasonable  for  the  govern- 
ment to  take  all  a  man's  property  as  it  demands  the 
life  service  of  young  men  by  the  Selective  Senace 
Law?  How  far  are  the  modern  doctrines  of  so- 
cialism adequate  for  the  solution  of  the  problems 
of  capitalism  and  poverty?  Is  the  Christian  pro- 
gram better?  Why?  What  is  the  difference  be- 
tween Jesus'  development  of  man  and  the  doctrine 
of  the  superman?  Why  is  inaction  as  serious  a  sin 
as  bad  action?  What  danger  is  there  of  being  a 
slacker  at  home?  What  are  the  consequences  of 
taking  a  quantitative  view  of  life's  achievements? 
What  are  the  best  means  of  getting  the  right  per- 
spective on  seemingly  unimportant  work?  Illus- 
trate from  the  life  of  Jesus  the  place  of  faith  in 
the  mastery  of  life. 


IN  FAITH 


V 

LIVING  IN  FAITH 

There  is  much  in  the  world  and  in  our  own  lives 
that  we  do  not  understand.     The  future  is  abso- 
lutely unknown.     No  man  knows  how 
Every- 
man's  the  affairs  of  the  world  or  of  his  own 

Faith  |j£^  ^j.g  going  to  be  to-morrow.     Some 

men,  it  is  true,  have  more  sensibility  and  insight 
than  others  regarding  the  inevitable  logic  of  char- 
acter and  action.  This  is  sometimes  called  fore- 
sight. In  spite  of  the  fact  that  men  do  not  know 
what  their  life  is  to  be  to-morrow  they  go  ahead 
in  full  confidence  that,  on  the  whole,  life  will  con- 
tinue as  it  was  yesterday.  From  past  experience 
men  make  certain  assumptions  about  life  to-mor- 
row and  then  go  ahead  living  and  acting  on  the 
truth  of  those  assumptions.  There  is  no  positive 
proof  or  assurance  that  the  accepted  and  habitual 
assumptions  are  right. 

This  impulse  and  habit  of  men  in  living  and  act- 
ing on  the  assumption  that  their  plans  are  valid, 
that  their  hopes  and  fears  are  true,  is  called  faith. 

69 


70    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

It  is  not  primarily  a  religious  faculty.  Paul  said : 
The  righteous  shall  live  by  faith  (Rom.  1:17).  We 
walk  by  faith,  not  by  sight  (II  Cor.  5  :7).  So  must 
every  one  talk  and  live  by  faith,  whether  he  be 
righteous  or  unrighteous.  Faith  is  a  faculty  that 
must  be  exercised  by  all. 

Every  business  man  builds  his  entire  business  on 
faith.  As  a  rule  business  is  started  with  large  sums 
of  borrowed  capital.  The  man  starts  with  faith  in 
himself,  faith  that  he  has  the  ability  to  make  the 
business  a  success  and  manage  well  his  capital. 
Then  he  must  have  faith  in  the  need  of  his  city 
or  section  for  the  goods  he  is  preparmg  to  handle; 
he  must  have  faith  in  the  word  of  travelling  sales- 
men that  the  goods  he  buys  are  as  represented;  he 
must  employ  clerks  for  whose  honesty  and  ability 
he  trusts  the  testimonials  of  other  men  and  his 
ability  to  read  character;  he  must  have  faith  in  the 
honesty  of  his  customers,  that  they  will  pay  their 
bills  when  due.  The  entire  enterprise  is  a  venture 
of  faith.  The  man  launching  a  new  work  is  not 
sure  of  a  single  step  ahead.  It  is  all  a  matter  of 
faith. 

Every  student  goes  to  college  as  a  venture  of 
faith.  He  must  have  faith  in  his  own  intellectual 
vigor,  in  his  ability  to  get  along  with  associates 
and  teachers,  in  the  skill  and  wisdom  of  his  teach- 


LIVING  IN  FAITH  71 

ers,  in  the  ability  of  his  father  to  support  him  or 
in  his  own  power  to  support  himself. 

All  the  failures  in  business,  and  the  number  every 
year  is  legion,  never  hinder  a  man  of  faith  from 
attempting  to  carry  out  his  ideas  and  plans.  All 
the  students  who  fail  to  succeed  in  college  do  not 
hinder  thousands  of  students  of  each  new  gen- 
eration of  high  school  graduates  from  trying  to  get 
a  college  education.  In  the  most  practical,  matter 
of  fact,  worldly  way  of  speaking,  all  men  are  com- 
pelled by  their  own  nature  and  the  nature  of  the 
world  to  ''live  by  faith." 

Dr.  W.  E.  Orchard  wrote:  "That  life  is  worth 
while,  and  that  the  universe  is  to  be  trusted,  is  the 
minimum  of  faith  on  which  life  can  be  supported 
or  any  inquiry  undertaken.  This  is  a  faith  that 
we  are  forced  to  come  to,  because  without  it  life 
cannot  be  undertaken.  It  is  one  of  the  rules  of  the 
game.  If  you  do  not  accept  it  you  cannot  play. 
This  will  appear  to  some  a  very  vague  faith.  But 
it  is  the  only  way  back  for  thousands.  There  is 
enough  in  it  to  enable  us  to  make  the  most  of  life, 
to  believe  in  its  inherent  justice  when  the  whole 
scheme  cannot  be  grasped.  Believe  that  even  in 
what  seems  so  wrong  there  lies  something  right,  be- 
hind man's  imagining  there  is  some  reality,  beyond 
all  human  hopes  something  that  shall  more  than 
satisfy.     Why  should  you  believe  that?     Simply 


^2    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

because  it  is  one  of  the  conditions  for  living  this 
Ufe  that  cannot  be  dispensed  with." 

Jesus  based  his  teaching  about  religious  faith 
on  this  instinctive  and  universal  practice  of  men. 
Tesus  and  ^^  taught  that  since  man  is  in  the  habit 
Faith  of  using  faith  in  dealing  v^ith  the  daily 

practical  problems  of  concrete  living,  he  should  use 
faith  likewise  in  seeking  to  understand  those  ele- 
ments of  life  that  were  unknown  (Matt.  18:12-14; 
7:11,  15-21).  He  applied  the  principle  of  faith  to 
the  business  of  living,  which  was  of  far  greater 
concern  than  that  of  making  a  living.  By  his  life 
He  taught  that  men  should  go  into  this  business 
of  living  with  the  assumption  that  there  is  a  God 
who  made  the  world;  that  this  God  is  man's  lov- 
ing Father;  that  the  universe  is  established  on  prin- 
ciples of  righteousness;  that  the  meaning  of  life 
is  to  be  found  in  self-sacrificing  love.  He  gave  a 
daily  exhibition  of  the  way  in  which  a  person  lived 
religious  faith.  With  Jesus,  faith  is  the  most  im- 
portant word  in  the  Gospels.  Paul  said :  Now  abid- 
eth  faith,  hope,  love,  these  three ;  and  the  greatest  of 
these  is  love.  Jesus  laid  down  the  great  principles 
of  love  to  God  and  love  to  man,  but  He  did  not  talk 
much  about  it.  He  did  talk  constantly  about  faith. 
The  Gospels  picture  Him  as  being  surprised  only 
on  two  occasions,  once  at  the  great  lack  of  faith  of 
the  people  of  his  own  country.     "And  He  mar- 


LIVING  IN  FAITH  73 

veiled  because  of  their  unbelief"  (Mark  8:6).  The 
other  occasion  was  at  the  exhibition  of  great  faith 
on  the  part  of  a  Roman  centurion.  ''And  when 
Jesus  heard  it  He  marvelled  and  said,  I  have  not 
found  so  great  faith,  no  not  in  Israel"  (Matt.  8  :io). 
Faith  was  not  merely  an  idea,  it  was  a  power,  a 
great  energy,  which  could  master  the  ills  and  temp- 
tations of  life,  and  give  a  grip  on  the  tmseen  reali- 
ties of  the  soul. 

The  followers  of  Jesus  from  that  day  to  this, 
seeking  to  bear  witness  to  his  philosophy  of  life, 
declare  that  his  way  is  the  most  satisfactory  method 
of  living  and  explaining  life  to-day.  Men  must 
have  some  convictions  about  the  eternal  problems. 
Jesus'  assumptions  seem  the  best  and  the  most 
true.  It  is  difficult  to  maintain  and  live  a  Christian 
faith  among  so  many  inexplicable  questions  and 
problems,  but  to  try  to  live  without  that  faith  is 
much  more  difficult.  Men  and  women  who  follow 
Jesus  in  thought  and  action  and  hope  live  the  full- 
est, happiest,  most  satisfactory  lives. 

It  is  always  wise  to  reckon  with  the  full  strength' 
of  one's  enemies.  Jesus  and  his  followers  have 
Opposi-  always   had    many   bitter,    skilful    and 

uons  and  aggressive  opponents.  The  enemies  of 
mises  the  Christian  faith  are  very  active  to- 

day. There  has  arisen  a  new  opposition  among 
other  religions.     The  followers  of  Buddha  in  In- 


74    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

dia,  of  Confucius  in  China,  of  Mohammed  in  Tur- 
key and  Africa,  are  vigorously  opposing  the  Chris- 
tian advance.  They  are  going  so  far  as  to  adopt 
methods  and  organizations  used  by  the  Christian 
Church  in  order  to  make  their  ovv^n  work  more  ef- 
fective. 

The  most  active  enemies  of  the  Cross  to-day 
are  the  men  who  place  supreme  faith  in  force  and 
materialism  and  deny  the  truth  or  power  of  faith 
in  love  and  brotherhood.  These  men  declare  that 
God  is  a  God  of  force,  not  of  love;  that  the  larg- 
est development  of  life  is  to  be  found  in  self-will 
and  natural  self-expression,  not  in  love  and  self- 
sacrifice;  that  the  highest  good  is  to  be  found  in 
domination  over  others,  not  in  service  for  others. 
At  this  point  are  to  be  found  the  clear,  intellectual 
and  spiritual  principles  which  are  at  the  base  of 
all  our  thinking  about  the  world  war.  The  war  is 
fundamentally  a  conflict  between  two  radically  op- 
posite conceptions  of  faith.  Our  enemies  place 
their  faith  in  force  and  the  ideal  of  selfish  power. 
A  professor  in  a  German  theological  seminary,  one 
who  has  written  standard  works  of  religion,  has 
confessed  that  his  main  work  was  not  teaching  the- 
ology but  instructing  a  group  of  young  men  from 
Finland  how  to  foment  a  revolution  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  German  Empire.    The  pitiful  thing  about 


LIVING  IN  FAITH  75 

all  this  is  that  it  was  but  a  reflection  of  a  concep- 
tion of  faith  in  the  forces  of  wrong. 

Another  serious  hindrance  to  the  spread  of  Chris- 
tian faith  is  the  compromise  of  so  called  Christians 
with  a  materialistic  faith.  Such  people  profess 
to  follow  Jesus  but  actually  live  as  non-Christians 
live.  They  say  they  have  faith  in  love,  hu- 
mility, sacrifice,  but  they  act  a  faith  in  selfishness, 
arrogance,  greed.  They  seek  financial  gain,  social 
success,  or  selfish  ease.  Such  people  are  practical 
atheists. 

There  is  not  enough  difference  between  the  Chris- 
tian and  the  man  who  is  not  a  Christian.  It  is 
reasonable  to  expect  every  follower  of  Jesus'  way 
of  living  to  make  his  loyalty  so  evident  that  others 
may  tell  by  his  boldness  and  power  that  he  ''has 
been  with  Jesus."  In  the  ordinary  social,  business 
and  student  relationships  of  life  a  Christian  should 
be  a  marked  person.  His  standard  and  tone  of 
conversation,  social  ideal  and  habitual  practice 
ought  to  be  a  daily  demonstration  to  all  men  of  a 
life  lived  according  to  Jesus'  principles. 

The  Christian  Church  from  the  time  of  its  very 
early  history  has  felt  the  need  of  putting  into  writ- 
Writing  ten  form  the  chief  elements  of  its  con- 
Uvin  ception  of  Jesus'  way  of  life.    This  ex- 

Faith  pression  is  known  as  a  creed.    A  creed 

is  an  expression  of  faith,  in  words.     This  form  of 


7(i    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

expression  is  valuable  and  helpful  as  a  bond  for 
holding  believers  together,  as  a  method  of  defini- 
tion, and  as  a  means  of  instruction.  Jesus  presum- 
ably never  wrote  out  any  statement  of  the  essentials 
of  his  way  of  living.  ^  Many  people  have  wondered 
at  this  apparent  oversight  on  his  part.  They  de- 
clare that  if  Jesus  had  written  a  creed,  then  all  the 
controversies  and  warfare  over  creeds  would  have 
been  avoided;  and  men  would  know  for  all  time 
just  exactly  what  they  ought  to  believe.  But  here, 
as  at  all  other  points,  Jesus  is  wiser  than  his  critics. 
He  knew  that  the  verbal  expression  of  faith  would 
inevitably  change  from  age  to  age^  but  that  the 
vital  expression  of  faith  could  never  change.  The 
essential  Christian  virtues  are  ever  the  same,  but 
theological  and  philosophical  explanations  and 
elaborations  change  with  each  upgrowing  genera- 
tion of  thoughtful  men. 

In  dealing  with  the  essential  principles  of  life 
men  do  not  first  write,  they  act.  Go  back  for  a 
moment  to  the  previous  illustration  of  the  man 
embarking  on  a  new  business  venture.  It  could 
easily  be  imagined  that  this  man  might  sit  down  be- 
fore he  did  anything  else  and  write  out  his  business 
creed.  He  might  make  a  statement  something  like 
this:  'T,  John  Doe,  about  to  go  into  a  mercantile 
business,  hereby  declare  my  business  faith.  I  be- 
lieve in  my  own  ability  to  make  a  success  of  this 


LIVING  IN  FAITH  yy 

new  undertaking;  I  believe  this  city  needs  a  new 
store;  I  believe  in  the  integrity  of  manufacturers, 
the  truthfulness  of  salesmen  and  the  honesty  of 
customers."  But  no  one  ever  heard  of  a  man  do- 
ing such  a  thing.  What  does  he  do?  He  rents  a 
building,  purchases  supplies,  employs  clerks  and  sells 
goods,  trusting  in  the  honor  of  all  the  people  in- 
volved. He  lives  his  business  faith.  He  acts  it 
out  before  all  men.  All  men  know  from  his  ac- 
tions what  his  faith  is.  Likewise  in  the  realm  of 
our  religious  faith  it  is  valuable  to  formulate  it  into 
words.  It  is  absolutely  necessary  that  it  be  ex- 
pressed in  deeds.  Jesus  never  said,  "By  their 
creeds  ye  shall  know  them,"  but  He  did  say,  *'By 
their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 

The  disciples  of  Jesus  and  the  members  of  the 
early  church  lived  their  faith.  They  believed  first 
of  all,  in  the  spiritual  presence  of  their  Master  in 
their  lives.  In  that  faith  they  went  forth  to  re- 
generate the  world.  The  freshness,  enthusiasm  and 
power  of  the  Apostolic  Church  have  been  the  envy 
and  admiration  of  Christians  ever  since.  The  early 
Christians  possessed  those  qualities,  so  rare  to- 
day, because  they  had  a  conviction  of  the  supreme 
importance  of  living  as  Jesus  had  taught  them  to 
live.  They  had  a  realization  of  the  power  Jesus 
gave  them  to  help  them  live  their  faith.    That  same 


yS    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

conviction  and  that  same  power  men  may  have  to- 
da}^  if  they  wish  it. 

One  of  the  searching  questions  Jesus  asked  was: 
When  the  Son  of  man  cometh  shall  he  find  faith 
on  the  earth?  (Luke  i8:8.)  Jesus  wondered,  as 
he  looked  at  the  small  response  to  his  ministry, 
what  the  future  of  his  gospel  was  to  be.  He  had 
confidence  in  its  ultimate  supremacy  because  He 
knew  that  Peter  and  James  and  John  and  others 
would  go  out  into  the  world,  empowered  by  his 
love,  to  live  the  life  filled  with  his  grace,  the  love  of 
God  and  the  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  As 
God  looks  at  the  present  age,  wasted  by  war,  He 
asks  the  same  question,  "Shall  I  find  faith  on  the 
earth?"  Every  faithful  believer  by  his  living  faith 
is  an  answer  to  that  question. 

For  Study  and  Discussion 

Why  is  faith  an  indispensable  quality  of  life? 
What  is  the  difference  between  faith  as  a  common 
quality  in  every  day  affairs  and  faith  as  a  religious 
thing?  How  far  is  religious  faith  instinctive  and 
how  far  acquired?  Why  did  Jesus  express  faith 
in  terms  of  living  rather  than  in  written  statement? 
Which  is  easier? 

Is  it  reasonable  to  expect  people  to  practice  the 
principles  of   the   Sermon   on  the   Mount?     Why 


LIVING  IN  FAITH  79 

should  a  Christian  maintain  a  higher  grade  of  con- 
versation, a  higher  social  ideal  and  practice  than  one 
who  is  not  a  Christian?  Can  you  distinguish  the 
average  person  who  is  a  Christian  from  one  who  is 
not?  What  ought  to-  be  the  marks  of  distinction? 
Does  the  social  life  of  your  community  help  or 
hinder  the  finest  kind  of  Christian  living? 

Write  out  in  a  few  sentences  the  principles  you 
consider  most  important  in  the  Christian  life. 
What  are  the  greatest  opposing  forces  to-day  to 
such  a  faith  ?  Why  do  you  think  Jesus  never  wrote 
a  statement  of  faith?  What  evidence  can  you  give 
that,  in  spite  of  war,  the  Christian  faith  is  stronger 
and  more  powerful  than  ever  before?  What  move- 
ments in  business  or  political  life  indicate  a  deep- 
ening faith  in  Jesus'  ways  of  living? 


SACRIFICE 


VI 


THAT   THESE   DEAD    SHALL   NOT   HAVE 
DIED    IN    VAIN 

Human  life  is  declared  to  be  the  most  valuable 
and  at  the  same  time  the  cheapest  thing  in  the 
Valuations  world.  From  the  standpoint  of  human 
on  Life  feeling  life  is  most  valuable.     An  indi- 

vidual values  his  life  above  all  other  things  and 
self-preservation  is  one  of  the  few  primary  instincts 
of  life.  ''What  shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for 
his  life?"  asks  Jesus  (Matt.  16:26).  The  implied 
answer  was  that  a  man  will  give  anything  to  pre- 
serve his  life.  The  lives  of  the  members  of  a  man's 
family  are  beyond  all  estimated  valuation.  Money 
cannot  measure  affection.  Gold  is  no  measure  of 
friendship.  Love  often  is  more  valuable  than  life. 
''Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man 
lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends"  (John  15:13). 
David  mourned  over  the  tragic  and  untimely  death 
of  his  wayward  son:  O  my  son  Absolom, — would 
God  that  I  had  died  for  thee  (H  Sam.  18  :33).  The 
law  likewise  places  the  highest  values  on  life  and 

83 


84    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

the  most  severe  penalties  are  imposed  on  crimes 
against  life. 

On  the  other  hand,  life  is  apparently  held  very 
cheaply  in  some  relationships.  In  the  industrial 
world  a  definite  monetary  standard  is  set  upon 
the  value  of  a  man's  life.  It  is  said  that  in  the 
world  of  agriculture  men  take  better  care  of  their 
stock  than  they  do  of  their  children.  It  is  declared 
to  be  a  fact  that  in  the  United  States  to-day  there 
are  more  laws  for  the  protection  of  cattle  than 
for  the  protection  of  children.  It  is  encouraging 
to  know  that  our  government  has  recently  estab-- 
lished  a  Bureau  of  Child  Welfare  in  Washington  to 
make  a  study  of  methods  of  protecting  the  child 
life  of  the  nation.  The  long  and  bitter  fights  for 
legislation  against  child  labor  in  many  of  our  state 
legislatures  is  a  revelation  of  the  small  value  placed 
on  child  life  as  compared  with  the  accumulation  of 
wealth.  Some  men  estimate  the  value  of  life  ac- 
cording to  its  length,  others  according  to  financial 
and  property  acquisitions.  It  is  common  to  hear 
it  said  that  Mr.  A.  is  worth  a  million  dollars  while 
Mr.  B.  is  worth  nothing.  A  recent  theory  is  that 
a  man's  life  is  worth  a  sum  equal  to  the  amount  of 
capital  required  to  produce  in  interest  what  a  man 
receives  in  wages  or  salary.  For  example,  a  man 
earning  two  thousand  dollars  a  year  would  be 
worth  forty  thousand  dollars.     All  these  problems 


NOT  IN  VAIN  •  85 

remind  us  of  the  question  of  Jesus  to  the  Pharisees 

— men  who  placed  property  above  life :    How  much 

then  is  a  man  of  more  value  than  a  sheep!     (Matt. 

12  :i2.) 

One  of  the  most  powerful  influences  growing  up 

out  of  the  life  and  teachings  of  Jesus  was  a  new 

^,  valuation  mven  to  human  life.  He 
The  ^ 

Christian  taught  that  each  human  life  is  of  in- 

Valuation  ^^-^^  ^^j^^  .^^  ^j^^  ^j^j^^  ^f  ^^^      ^-^^  -^ 

valuable  because  in  some  very  real  though  mysteri- 
ous manner  it  shares  in  the  Divine  nature.  Men  are 
"sons  of  God."  God  is  the  Father  of  all  men — 
of  Gentiles,  Greeks,  Barbarians,  Negroes,  Indians. 
The  fatherhood  of  God  implies  the  brotherhood  of 
man.  From  the  day  of  Jesus  to  our  own,  life  has 
steadily  increased  in  value  in  human  thought. 
Jesus  taught  the  value  of  the  life  of  a  child,  the  life 
of  a  woman,  the  Hfe  of  a  slave.  Wherever  the 
Gospel  is  preached  childhood  is  viewed  with  a  new 
love,  womanhood  with  a  new  honor,  all  men  with 
a  new  sense  of  respect.  In  their  most  glorious  days 
of  political  and  artistic  supremacy  the  Greeks  ex- 
posed infants  to  die  upon  the  mountains  and  caused 
aged  people  to  be  killed.  But  Jesus  revealed  to 
mankind  that  little  children  belonged  to  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven  and  that  a  man's  love  for  his  par- 
ents of  any  age  could  be  surpassed  only  l)y  a  de- 
votion to  Jesus  Himself  as  Master  of  life. 


86    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

The  Christian  valuation  of  life  is  made  in  terms 
of  a  Christ-like  character.  The  most  valuable  life 
is  the  one  that  is  most  Christ-like.  The  Christian 
idea  is  that  the  highest  goodness  is  expressed  in 
love — love  to  God  and  love  to  man.  Jesus  summed 
it  all  up  in  his  reference  to  the  two  great  com- 
mandments: Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God 
with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with 
all  thy  mind — thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thy 
self  (Matt.  22:37-38). 

There  is  in  many  circles  to-day  a  valuation  of 
life  in  terms  not  of  character  but  of  genius.  Life 
is  worth  what  it  can  produce  in  artistic  results. 
The  great  thing  in  life  is  art,  not  character.  The 
great  man  is  the  one  who  can  produce  a  remark- 
able book,  picture,  statue  or  musical  creation. 
Moral  character  is  placed  in  subordination  tO'  ar- 
tistic genius.  The  evil  practices  of  a  man  who 
can  produce  some  unusual  work  of  art  are  excused 
and  condoned. 

Men  of  our  generation  need  to  be  called  afresh 
to  a  consideration  of  the  Christian  standards  of 
life's  valuation  and  to  the  Christian  methods  of  in- 
creasing life's  values. 

A  person's  first  duty  is  to  be  "good."  The  lack 
of  the  essential  qualities  of  a  Christ-like  character 
makes  the  contributions  of  genius  worthless  in  the 
eternal  computations  of  life.     Though  a  man  be 


NOT  IN  VAIN  87 

able  to  write  remarkable  prose  or  poetry,  though 
he  be  able  to  paint  masterpieces  of  art  or  write 
marvellous  music,  and  have  not  love,  it  profits  him 
nothing.  Though  he  be  a  great  scholar  and  ''know 
all  mysteries  and  all  knowledge"  and  have  not  the 
love  that  makes  a  pure  soul  it-  profits  him  nothing. 
Out  of  nearly  two  thousand  years  of  human  ex- 
perience men  have  chosen  as  their  ideal  of  life  not 
a  great  poet,  or  painter  or  musician,  or  king  or 
emperor,  but  one  who  exemplified  as  no  other  hu- 
man being  the  ''goodness  of  God." 

To  sacrifice  life  means  to  offer  it  to  God  as  an 
expression  of  thanksgiving  and  gratitude.  That 
Love  and  ^^^^  ^^  worth  the  most  which  in  the 
Sacrifice  fullest  sense  makes  a  constant  effort  to 
give  itself  to  God  and  tO'  godly  purposes.  Life  is 
offered  to  God  by  seeking  to  make  the  life  of  man- 
kind God-like.  This  is  accomplished  by  trying  to 
lift  men  up  to  God.  A  life  devoted  to  the  service 
of  God  and  man  subordinates  and  seeks  to  over- 
come all  base,  selfish  and  commonplace  elements. 
Too  often  the  elimination  of  the  elements  of  lesser 
valuation  is  considered  to  be  the  great  element  in 
sacrifice.  Sacrifice  is  regarded  as  giving  up,  as 
self-repression,  as  denying  oneself  what  one  natu- 
rally likes  best.  Sacrifice  is  not  self -repression;  it 
is,  on  the  contrary,  the  highest  self-expression.  In 
the  true  sense  of  the  word  there  is  no  idea  of  limi- 


88    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

tation  or  giving  up  in  the  idea  of  sacrifice.  It  is 
rather  the  highest  investment  of  life  for  the  most 
valuable  returns. 

The  life  of  Jesus  is  the  greatest  example  and 
highest  ideal  of  the  most  complete  sacrificial  life. 
His  daily  life  was  a  sacrifice,  an  offering  tO'  God 
as  an  expression  of  love  and  devotion.  His  death 
on  the  Cross  was  the  natural  climax  of  a  life  of 
sacrifice,  a  part  of  his  life  plan.  Yet  in  it  all  no 
one  can  find  the  least  suggestion  in  Jesus'  words 
that  He  considered  his  life  a  giving  up;  it  was 
rather  a  giving  ''into"  He  always  spoke  of  the 
sacrifice  of  his  life  as  an  investment.  He  was  al- 
ways more  conscious  of  the  returns  than  of  the 
manner  of  the  investment.  He  never  intimated 
that  He  was  throwing  his  life  away.  He  always 
emphasized  what  He  was  living  for  and  what  He 
was  dying  for.  "The  bread  which  I  will  give  is  my 
flesh  for  the  life  of  the  world."  ''I  am  come  tlmt 
they  may  have  life."  "For  God  so  loved  the  world 
that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whoso- 
ever believeth  on  him  should  not  perish  but  have 
eternal  life." 

Sacrifice  often  means  pain  and  persecution  and 
other  forms  of  suffering.  Many  people  look  upon 
these  elements  as  central  in  sacrifice.  They  assert 
that  the  value  of  a  man's  sacrifice  is  in  proportion 
to  his  suffering.     This  is  not  essential  in  sacrifice. 


NOT  IN  VAIN  89 

Pain  and  suffering  are  incidental  to  sacrifice.  In 
order  to  accomplish  the  great  investments  of  life  a 
man  is  ready  to  suffer  anything  it  may  cost.  If 
pain  accompanies  sacrifice  it  is  patiently  endured 
as  an  incidental  part  of  love's  highest  self-expres- 
sion. The  measure  of  sacrifice  is  not  the  pain  but 
the  purpose. 

The  knovv^ledge  of  the  millions  of  lives  lost  as  a 
result  of  the  present  v^orld  conflict  compels  a 
War  and  revaluation  of  the  old  estimates  of  the 
Sacrifice  worth  of  human  life  and  the  place  of 
sacrifice.  The  slaughter  of  men  in  warfare;  the 
brutal  murder  of  innocent  civilians,  women  and 
children;  wholesale  massacres  in  some  of  the 
smaller  nations,  make  it  harder  than  ever  before  to 
believe  that  each  life  is  of  infinite  worth  in  the  sight 
of  God.  Yet  no  human  hatred,  ruthless  cruelty  or 
immeasurable  suffering  can  shake  the  conviction  of 
this  truth  from  the  mind  of  the  Christian.  It  re- 
mains for  us  to  try,  under  the  guidance  of  the  spirit 
of  Jesus,  to  see  anew  the  value  of  a  life  invested  in 
the  cause  of  righteousness  and  lasting  peace.  We 
still  believe  that  God  values  each  one  of  us  above 
"many  sparrows"  and  that  ''the  very  hairs  of  our 
head  are  all  numbered." 

The  Christian  idea  of  the  sacredness  and  infinite 
value  of  life  suffers  violence  in  the  presence  of  the 
awful  loss  of  life  and  devastation  of  war.     But  the 


90    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

Christian  should  never  fail  to  estimate  correctly 
the  moral  and  spiritual  accomplishments  coming 
from  lives  laid  down  in  war.  In  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  it  is  not  the  loss  of  life  that  is  impor- 
tant, but  how  and  why  it  was  ''lost."  If  a  life  was 
devoted  to  the  ends  of  righteousness,  it  was  not 
lost  but  found.  Life  is  of  value  not  by  reason  of 
its  length  in  years  but  by  reason  of  what  it  seeks  to 
contribute  to  the  eternal  welfare  of  mankind.  A 
life  that  goes  out  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  fight- 
ing for  righteousness,  is  worth  infinitely  more  than 
one  that  exists  in  selfish  ease  for  three-score  years 
and  ten.  A  young  American  soldier  in  France 
wrote  these  lines  : — - 

"Better  in  one  ecstatic  epic  day 
To  strike  a  blow  for  glory  and  for  truth, 
With  ardent  singing  heart  to  toss  away 
In  freedom's  holy  cause  my  eager  youth, 
Than  bear,  as  weary  years  pass  one  by  one. 
The  knowledge  of  a  sacred  task  undone." 

A  poet  wrote  long  ago — 

*'We  live  in  deeds,  not  years;  in  thoughts,  not  breaths; 
In  feelings,  not  in  figures  on  a  dial. 
We  should  count  time  by  heart-throbs.     He  most  lives 
Who  thinks  most,  feels  the  noblest,  acts  the  best. 
Life's  but  a  means  unto  an  end;  that  end 
Beginning,  mean,  and  end  to  all  things: — God." 


NOT  IN  VAIN  91 

The  common  habit  of  thought  is  to  dwell  upon 
death  as  a  thing  in  itself.  The  effort  of  Jesus  was 
to  teach  men  to  regard  death  only  as  a  part  of  a 
life  purpose.  A  life  spent  in  trying  to  make  the 
world  into  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  a  rich  invest- 
ment. The  time  or  the  manner  of  the  close  of  the 
effort  is  unimportant.  Those  at  home  share  in- 
timately in  the  life  service  of  the  young  men — the 
sons,  brothers,  friends  who  have  gone  to  fight,  to 
suffer  and  to  die  in  war.  Every  unselfish  effort 
for  their  welfare  by  those  at  home  is  an  expression 
of  a  sacred  consecration  to  the  ideals  to  which  the 
American  soldiers  are  devoting  themselves.  The 
spirit  in  which  fathers,  mothers  and  friends  send 
their  soldiers  away,  their  attitude  during  the  shift- 
ing fortunes  of  war,  and  their  fortitude  and  faith 
in  the  hours  of  suffering  and  death,  are  even 
greater  evidences  of  the  sacrificial  spirit.  There  is 
often  more  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  those  who  stay 
at  home  than  of  those  who  go  away  to  war. 

There  seems  to  be  no  lack  of  men  who,  with  no 
thought  of  personal  comfort  or  safety,  are  willing 
Forgetting  ^^  SQTve  the  cause  of  righteousness 
Oneself  through  warfare.     The  normal  young 

soldier  speaks  of  his  work  with  keen  enthusiasm. 
The  drafted  men,  as  a  rule,  glory  in  their  new  op- 
portunities of  sacrifice.  All  are  beginning  to  get 
the  great  vision   of   social   responsibility  and   the 


92    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

realization  of  the  cost  of  a  just  and  lasting  peace. 
Many  are  learning  the  rich  rewards  of  discipline 
and  hardships.  The  modern  peaceful  civilized  life 
has  made  men  too  comfortable,  selfish  and  easy 
going.  The  war  is  bringing  out  their  heroic  quali- 
ties. 

William  James  wrote  of  the  need  of  a  moral 
equivalent  for  war.  Jesus  gave  such  an  equivalent 
to  men,  but  few  have  been  able  to  see  it.  He  called 
men  to  consecrate  themselves  wholly  and  to  train 
themselves  for  the  service  of  bringing  into  human 
life  the  Kingdom  of  God.  The  secret  of  true  sac- 
rifice is  self-forgetfulness.  "Love  seeketh  not  its 
own,"  said  Paul.  Here,  likewise,  is  the  modern  in- 
terpretation of  the  words  of  Jesus:  He  that  find- 
eth  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  he  that  loseth  his  life 
for  my  sake  shall  find  it.  Would  not  Jesus  say  to 
men  to-day:  He  that  thinks  about  himself  shall 
miss  the  meaning  of  his  life  and  he  that  forgets 
himself  for  my  sake  shall  discover  the  meaning  of 
his  life? 

,  One  of  the  marvellous  ministries  of  war  is  that 
it  teaches  men  how  to  forget  themselves.  A  chap- 
lain in  the  British  Army  told  of  a  young  soldier, 
who,  before  going  into  the  army,  had  thought  only 
of  himself,  his  silk  socks,  the  style  of  his  clothes, 
his  money  and  his  revels.  Now  he  is  a  platoon 
commander    thinking    of    everybody    but    himself, 


NOT  IN  VAIN  93 

ready  at  any  moment  to  fling  his  life  away  if  neces- 
sary, to  perform  any  service  for  his  men.  This  is 
but  one  of  unnumbered  stories  of  this  kind.  There 
are  surely  enough  great  opportunities  for  war  serv- 
ice and  for  relieving  the  suffering  of  mankind  to 
lift  the  most  self-centered  person  out  of  his  selfish- 
ness. Should  we  allow  the  attacks  of  an  enemy 
to  spur  us  to  greater  endeavor  than  does  the  call  of 
Jesus  to  serve  a  world  ever  in  need  of  the  healing 
ministry  of  love? 

The  greatest  incentive  to  self -forgetful  service 
has  been  the  sacrificing  love  of  Jesus  Christ.  Paul 
said:  "The  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us,"  and 
again  he  declares  his  inspiration  to  have  come  from 
''the  Son  of  God  who  loved  me  and  gave  himself 
for  me."  In  this  day,  with  its  call  to  great  sacrifices, 
who  can  measure  the  value  of  his  life  without  the 
measuring  rod  of  the  eternal  purposes  of  God  for 
the  world?  Happy  is  the  man  or  woman  who  can 
invest  his  or  her  life  in  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

For  Study  and  Discussion 

How  did  Jesus'  valuation  of  life  differ  from  that 
of  the  ancient  world?  How  far  is  our  valuation  of 
life  to-day,  Christian?  Contrast  our  care  of  the 
sick  and  old  with  our  child  labor  and  poor  laws. 
What  responsibility  has  the  individual  citizen  for 


94    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

all  life  ?  What  significance  in  a  democracy  has  char- 
acter as  the  test  of  the  value  of  a  life? 

How  far  are  Jesus'  teaching  and  example  re- 
garding sacrifice  applicable  to  present  day  condi- 
tions ?  Do  suffering  and  pain  always  go  with  sac- 
rifice? Is  there  any  religious  or  spiritual  value  in 
pain  as  an  end  in  itself  ?  Was  the  Puritan  attitude 
toward  pain  and  pleasure  the  right  one?  Why? 
How  should  Christian  heroism  differ  from  the 
stoicism  of  the  Greeks? 

What  are  the  best  means  for  bringing  out  in 
every  day  life  the  heroic  qualities  latent  in  every 
man  and  woman?  A  speaker  made  an  appeal  to 
a  company  of  young  people  for  volunteers  for  mis- 
sionary service  by  picturing  the  interesting,  attrac- 
tive features  of  missionary  life.  Was  this  the  best 
method?  If  giving  one's  life  for  a  righteous  and 
lasting  peace  is  a  spiritual  service,  why  should  there 
l>e  ''conscientious  objectors"?  Is  a  Christian  ever 
justified  in  speaking  of  the  things  he  "gives  up"  in 
connection  with  some  so-called  self-sacrificing  serv- 
ice? What  is  our  responsibility  for  not  wasting 
the  results  of  others'  sacrifice?  What  will  it  mean 
to  us  ''that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain"  ? 


INDIGNATION 


VII 
CHRISTIAN  INDIGNATION 

One  of  the  most  frequent  characteristics  of  God 
mentioned  by  the  writers  of  the  Old  Testament  is 
^,  that  of  anger.     On  almost  every  occa- 

Anger  sion  the  sin  of  the  Hebrew  people  and 

the  wrong-doing  of  the  individual 
arouses  anger  in  God.  Adam  sensed  it  as  he  hid 
himself  among  the  trees  of  the  garden.  Abraham 
felt  it  as  he  pleaded  for  the  salvation  of  Sodom. 
Moses  felt  it  constantly  as  he  tried  to  lead  a  rebel- 
lious people.  The  prophet  and  the  psalmist  again 
and  again  give  expression  to  this  feeling  in  God  to- 
ward the  iniquity  of  man. 

In  the  New  Testament  the  fatherly  love  of  God 
is  the  guiding  principle,  but  the  rejection  of  that 
love  involves  a  punishment  and  retribution  sent  by 
a  God  who  has  no  tender  feelings  toward  sin.  The 
writer  of  the  Apocalypse,  exalting  the  power  and 
majesty  of  Jesus,  calls  attention  to  the  "wrath  of 
the  Lamb."  Time  was  when  anger  on  the  part  of 
God  was  viewed  as  similar  to  anger  in  man.     It 

97 


98    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

was  a  characteristic  that  expressed  itself  in  taking 
vengeance  on  evil  doers.  A  deeper  insight  into  this 
subject  has  led  thoughtful  and  sympathetic  students 
to  believe  rather  that  God's  anger  is  but  a  mani- 
festation of  this  love,  an  effort  to  make  men  see  the 
awful  condemnation  He  has  placed  upon  sin,  and 
his  desire  to  save  men  both  from  sin  and  its  con- 
sequences. 

Love  that  is  truly  complete  is  characterized  by 
severity  as  well  as  gentleness.  An  indulgent  par- 
ent is  a  serious  handicap  to  any  child.  The  love 
that  only  condones,  shields  and  excuses  wrong-doing 
in  a  child  is  a  false  love.  It  displays  a  serious 
weakness  in  the  character  of  the  parent.  Paul  gave 
expression  to  a  more  adequate  understanding  of 
the  nature  of  God  when  he  wrote:  Behold  the 
goodness  and  the  severity  of  God;  toward  them 
that  fall,  severity;  but  toward  thee  God's  good- 
ness, if  thou  continue  in  his  goodness;  otherwise 
thou  also  shalt  be  cut  off  (Rom.  11:22).  It  seems 
reasonably  clear,  therefore,  that  there  is  in  God  a 
quality  of  intense  indignation  against  evil,  which 
is  one  of  the  expressions  of  his  love  for  man,  how- 
ever contradictory  these  qualities  may  appear  to 
be.  There  is  a  limit  to  the  forbearance  of  God. 
"Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me.  Lord,  Lord, 
shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven"  (Matt. 
7:21).     Man  must  not  forget  that  persistent  and 


CHRISTIAN  INDIGNATION  99 

unrepentant  sin  receives  the  most  severe  condemna- 
tion from  a  just  and  loving  God. 

The  general  conception  of  the  character  of  Jesus 
has  been  very  inadequate.  The  qualities  of  gentle- 
ness and  submissiveness  have  been 
The  In-  over-emphasized.  A  careful  study  of 
of  Jesus  the  Gospels  clearly  reveals  the  other 
side  in  his  nature.  He  had  an  intense 
feeling  against  sin  in  all  its  forms.  He  had  a  fear- 
less courage  in  expressing  his  feelings.  At  times 
He  gives  expression  to  the  spirit  of  deepest  in- 
dignation. 

a.  He  displayed  his  indignation  v^ith  the  men 
who  were  without  sympathy  for  the  unfortunate: 
''And  he  entered  again  into  the  synagogue.  And 
there  was  a  man  there  which  had  his  hand  with- 
ered. And  they  (the  Pharisees)  watched  him, 
whether  he  would  heal  him  on  the  Sabbath  day, 
that  they  might  accuse  him.  And  he  saith  unto 
the  man  that  had  his  hand  withered.  Stand  forth. 
And  he  saith  unto  them,  Is  it  lawful  on  the  Sabbath 
day  to  do  good  or  to  do  harm?  To  save  life  or  to 
kill  ?  But  they  held  their  peace.  And  when  he  had 
looked  round  about  on  them  with  anger,  being 
grieved  at  the  hardening  of  their  hearts,  he  saith 
unto  the  man.  Stretch  forth  thy  hand.  And  he 
stretched  it  forth,  and  his  hand  was  restored"  (Mark 
3:  1-5). 


100     PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

b.  He  was  indignant  against  men  who  used  re- 
ligion as  a  cloak  for  sin :  ''Beware  of  the  scribes 
which  desire  tO'  walk  in  long  robes,  and  love  saluta- 
tions in  the  market  places,  and  chief  seats  in  the 
synagogues,  and  chief  seats  at  feasts,  which  de- 
vour widows'  houses  and  for  a  pretense  make  long 
prayers :  these  shall  receive  greater  condemnation" 
(Luke  20:45-47). 

c.  He  was  indignant  toward  the  rich  who  were 
unmindful  of  the  poor.  He  followed  the  striking 
story  of  Dives  and  Lazarus  with  the  intense  appli- 
cation :  "It  is  impossible  but  that  occasions  for 
stumbling  should  come ;  but  woe  unto  him  through 
whom  they  come.  It  were  well  for  him  if  a  mill- 
stone were  hanged  about  his  neck  and  he  were 
thrown  into  the  sea"  (Luke  17:1-3). 

d.  He  was  indignant  with  men  who  were  graft- 
ers. That  indignation  he  expressed  by  quick  and 
vigorous  action  :  ''And  he  made  a  scourge  of  cords, 
and  cast  all  out  of  the  temple,  both  sheep  and  oxen, 
and  he  poured  out  the  changers'  money,  and  over- 
threw their  tables,  and  to  them  that  sold  doves  he 
said.  Take  these  things  hence;  make  not  my  Fath- 
er's house  a  house  of  merchandise"    (John  2:13- 

16). 

These  illustrations  of  his  capacity  for  indigna- 
tion only  add  to  the  greatness  of  his  character. 
There  is  underneath  it  all  the  deep  desire  to  lift 


CHRISTIAN  INDIGNATION  loi 

men  out  of  their  sinful  condition.  He  realized  that 
this  could  never  be  done  without  giving  expression 
to  his  abhorrence  of  sin  and  without  a  picture  of 
its  terrible  results.  At  the  same  time  there  is  no  in- 
dication of  any  spirit  of  hate  or  revenge.  Intense 
as  his  feeling  is,  he  keeps  it  always  on  the  high 
plane  of  God's  love  and  fatherly  interest  in  men. 
George  H.  Morrison  wrote:  "We  have  heard  much 
of  the  geniality  of  Jesus,  and  of  the  depth  and 
range  of  his  compassions ;  nor  can  we  ever  exagger- 
ate, in  warmest  language,  the  genial  and  generous 
aspect  of  his  character.  But  it  is  well  that  the  lis- 
tening ear  should  be  attuned  to  catch  the  sterner 
music  of  that  life,  lest,  missing  it,  we  miss  the  fine 
severity  which  goes  to  the  perfecting  of  moral 
beauty." 

True  indignation  arises  from  a  clear  distinction 
between  right  and  wrong.     This  is  at  the  basis  of 

,     the  Old  Testament  idea  of  the  anger  of 
Sources  of  .      ,       twt         ^ 

a  True  In-  God  and  the  New  Testament  concep- 
dignation  ^^^^  ^^  ^^^  indignation  of  Jesus.  If 
sin  and  evil  can  be  seen  in  the  right  light  and  under- 
stood in  their  true  relations,  they  will  always  arouse 
a  righteous  antagonism  in  the  hearts  of  good  men. 
There  is  evident  among  many  people  to-day  a  seri- 
ous inability  to  make  these  clear  distinctions.  There 
are  those  who  consider  it  a  virtue  to  take  an  easy- 
going attitude  toward  sin  and  to  be  apologetic  to- 


102     PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

ward  evil.  They  declare,  'There  is  so  much  bad  in 
the  best  of  us  and  so  much  good  in  the  worst  of  us, 
that  it  does  not  behoove  any  of  us  to  criticize  the 
rest  of  us."  There  is  a  crying  need  to-day  of  a 
new  sensitiveness  to  evil  that  will  arouse  men's 
vigorous  antagonism  against  it.  Dr.  W.  E.  Or- 
chard wrote:  ''It  is  said  that  the  moral  fiber  of 
an  age  can  be  tested  by  its  readiness  to  take  fire  at 
injustice,  cruelty,  or  evil.  Observers  of  our  own 
times  sometimes  doubt  whether  this  characteristic 
is  just  so  strong  among  us  as  a  healthy  condition 
would  demand.  Awful  as  this  manifestation  some- 
times is,  there  is  hope  for  the  future  only  if  there 
is  a  capacity  in  man  for  righteous  indignation  that 
no  tyrant  or  cynic  shall  dare  to  awake.  Without 
that  we  should  be  sold  into  slavery  in  a  decade. 
Indeed,  men  draw  hope  from  the  fact  that  all  over 
the  world  nations  and  classes  long  subservient  under 
misrule  and  injustice  are  beginning  to  demand  that 
these  things  shall  end." 

It  may  be  a  part  of  the  discipline  of  these  hor- 
rors of  war  that  men  are  helped  to  see  right  and 
wrong  more  clearly  and  to  have  their  feelings  cor- 
respondingly aroused.  A  mother  whose  son  was 
drafted  into  the  army  was  bitterly  rebellious  against 
the  war,  the  army  and  the  government.  At  length 
there  came  to  her  attention  the  terrible  stories  of 
the  enemy  atrocities.     Then  she  said,  "I  am  glad 


CHRISTIAN  INDIGNATION  103 

to  give  my  son  for  the  purpose  of  making  such 
horrors  impossible  in  the  future.''  Once  her  in- 
dignation was  aroused  her  whole  mental  attitude 
was  changed. 

Many  of  our  great  men  who  have  done  some  of 
the  most  significant  things  for  the  uplift  of  man- 
kind have,  at  some  one  time,  been  stirred  into  feel- 
ings of  great  indignation  by  the  harsh  and  evil 
conditions  around  them.  Indignation  was  one  of 
the  springs  of  their  action.  Moses  was  aroused  by 
the  sight  of  the  cruel  oppression  of  his  race  by  the 
Eg}^ptians.  When  Martin  Luther  went  to  Rome 
he  was  shocked  by  the  worldliness  and  corruption 
of  the  church.  That  impression  was  one  of  the 
influences  that  impelled  him  in  his  struggle  for  a 
free  church.  The  young  Abraham  Lincoln,  seeing 
the  cruelty  of  slavery  and  burning  with  indigna- 
tion, said,  *Tf  ever  I  get  a  chance  to  hit  that  thing, 
I  will  hit  it  hard."  That  feeling  never  left  him, 
and  enabled  him  when  the  time  came  to  hit  it  hard. 
John  Bright  was  aroused  from  his  own  deep  sor- 
row following  the  death  of  his  young  wife,  by  the 
sight  of  women  and  children  of  England  starving 
because  of  the  iniquitous  corn  laws.  John  Howard 
began  the  revolution  in  the  prison  systems  of  the 
civilized  world  when  aroused  by  the  sight  and 
knowledge  of  the  shocking  prison  conditions  of  his 
day.     Phillips  Brooks  said,  ''The  streana  of  simple 


104     PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

indignation  against  evil  and  of  love  for  righteous- 
ness, when  it  is  absolutely  fresh  and  pure,  is  the 
most  strong  and  persistent  power  in  the  world." 
Truly  before  action  goes  indignation. 

In  many  respects  we  are  treading  on  dangerous 
ground  in  the  discussions  of  this  problem.  There 
Danger  ^^^  certain  points  of  special  danger  at 

Points  which   a  warning  is  necessary.      Care 

must  be  taken  to  be  certain  that  indignation  is  not 
personal.  Most  people  are  aroused  to  feelings  of 
indignation  only  by  personal  attacks,  slights  or 
fancied  injuries.  Many  people  mistake  temper  for 
indignation.  ''Hot  temper,"  writes  Dr.  Jowett,  *'is 
a  firing  of  loose  powder  upon  a  shovel,  it  is  just  a 
flare,  an  annoyance,  and  a  danger.  But  hot  in- 
dignation is  powder  concentrated  in  the  muzzle  of 
a  gun  and  intelligently  directed  to  the  overthrow  of 
some  stronghold  of  iniquity.  Hot  temper  is  the 
fire  of  the  devil.  Hot  indignation  is  the  fire  of 
God." 

Personal  anger  and  indignation  find  expression 
in  a  spirit  of  hatred  and  revenge.  True  indigna- 
tion at  evil  may  be  felt  and  applied  without  any 
feelings  of  revengeful  hatred.  That  is  the  reason 
why  Lincoln  after  the  Civil  War  refused  to  con- 
sider any  of  the  plans  for  revenge  and  retribution 
on  the  South  urged  by  many  men  in  the  North  who 
hated  the. South.     He   said,   ''Let  down  the  bars. 


CHRISTIAN  INDIGNATION  105 

scare  them  off."  That  is  the  reason  why  the  United 
States  can  go  into  this  war  without  singing  any 
Hymn  of  Hate.  That  is  the  reason  why  Edith 
Cavell  could  face  the  German  firing  squad  and 
calmly  say,  'T  realize  that  patriotism  is  not  enough. 
I  must  have  no  hatred  or  bitterness  toward  any 
one." 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  we  are  at  war  with  Ger- 
many, President  Wilson  could  say  as  an  expression 
not  only  of  his  own  convictions,  but  also  of  the 
feelings  of  the  American  people,  'Tt  will  be  all  the 
easier  for  us  to  conduct  ourselves  as  belligerents 
in  a  high  spirit  of  right  and  fairness  because  we 
act  without  animus,  not  in  enmity  toward  a  people 
or  with  the  desire  to  bring  any  injury  or  disadvan- 
tage upon  them." 

Another  danger  against  which  we  need  to  be  on 
guard  is  lest  our  indignation  be  used  only  at  long 
range.  It  is  easy  to  be  indignant  at  evils  of  a  world 
war,  at  the  sins  of  our  enemies,  and  to  be  utterly 
indifferent  to  the  wrongs  of  our  own  country,  city  or 
social  circles.  It  is  very  easy  to  be  indignant  at  the 
sins  of  other  people  and  unconscious  of  our  own. 
Nathan  the  Prophet  brought  this  solemn  truth  home 
to  David  in  the  parable  of  the  one  ewe  lamb.  David 
was  very  indignant  at  the  story  of  the  rich  man, 
who  robbed  a  poor  man  of  his  one  lamb  but  had  no 
feelings  of  self-condemnation  for  stealing  another 


io6     PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

man's  wife  (II  Samuel  12  : 1-7).  Jesus  also  warned 
against  this  danger  in  the  parable  of  the  unmerciful 
servant  in  which  the  servant  forgiven  by  the  man 
higher  up  is  brutally  indignant  at  the  man  lower 
down  (Matt.  18:23-30).  Jesus  again  gave  a  warn- 
ing in  the  passage:  ''And  why  beholdest  thou  the 
mote  that  is  in  thy  brother's  eye,  but  considerest  not 
the  beam  that  is  in  thine  own  eye?  Or  how  wilt 
thou  say  to  thy  brother,  Let  me  cast  the  mote  out 
of  thine  eye;  and  lo,  the  beam  is  in  thine  own  eye?" 
(Matt.  7:3-4). 

There  is  need  also  of  guarding  lest  our  indigna- 
tion become  weakened  and  destroyed  by  opposition, 
hardship  or  apparent  defeat.  Life,  viewed  as  a 
whole,  is  a  battle  between  the  forces  of  good  and 
evil.  Whosoever  fights  for  righteousness  is  sure  to 
be  brought  into  painful  opposition  to  people  who 
are  interested  in  unrighteousness.  Friendship  may 
have  to  be  sacrificed.  Defeat  may  sometimes  be  the 
result  of  the  most  noble  and  faithful  efforts.  Jesus' 
indignation  against  evil  which  separated  men  from 
God,  his  Father,  brought  Him  to  the  cross.  He 
did  not  promise  any  of  his  followers  an  easy  time. 
He  declared,  "A  servant  is  not  greater  than  his 
lord.  If  they  persecuted  me,  they  will  also  perse- 
cute you."  Christian  indignation  necessitates  a 
Christian  endurance.  It  is  at  this  point  that  the  in- 
dignation of  many  fails  to  be  effective.     There  are 


CHRISTIAN  INDIGNATION  107 

too  few  who  are  willing  to  suffer  any  hardship  re- 
sulting from  an  open  conflict  with  evil  or  opposi- 
tion to  popular  but  unworthy  ideas.  The  effort 
of  the  average  person  is  to  be  diplomatic,  tactful; 
to  get  along  quietly  and  peaceably  rather  than  to 
say  or  do  anything  that  would  cause  trouble  or 
arouse  opposition.  True  indignation  never  makes 
moral  compromises  for  the  sake  of  comfort  or 
popularity.  The  intensity  of  our  indignation  is  one 
of  the  measures  of  our  Christian  love. 


For  Study  and  Discussion 

How  does  the  quality  of  indignation  in  the  char- 
acter of  Jesus  harmonize  with  his  gentleness,  love, 
and  forgiving  spirit?  What  things  was  He  in- 
dignant at?  Does  this  matter?  Why?  Can  this 
spirit  be  reconciled  with  his  precept  to  "love  your 
enemies  and  pray  for  them  that  persecute  you"? 
Why  does  the  personal  element  in  indignation 
weaken  it? 

Can  you  see  the  distinction  between  a  righteous 
war  and  an  unrighteous  peace?  Think  of  examples 
of  men  and  women  to-day  who,  moved  by  a  great 
indignation,  are  changing  evil  conditions  in  political 
and  social  life  in  America.  How  true  is  it  that  large 
natures  always  have  large  capacities  for  indigna- 
tion ? 


io8     PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

Paul  said,  Be  ye  angry  and  sin  not.  How  is  this 
to  be  practically  carried  out  in  every-day  life?  Try 
to  analyze  your  own  attitude  to  sin  and  evil.  Is  it 
easy-going,  sentimental,  excusing,  or  is  it  a  clear- 
cut,  vigorous  spirit  of  opposition?  How  far  is 
your  relation  to  vital  moral  problems  determined 
by  a  desire  to  be  popular,  to  avoid  trouble,  and  to 
get  along  as  best  you  can?  What  is  our  responsi- 
bility to  make  our  righteous  indignation  effective 
against  unrighteousness  in  the  world  to-day?  At 
what  point  should  gentleness,  tact  and  diplomacy 
be  abandoned  for  sterner  measures?  When  should 
moral  compromise  end  ? 


THE  WORD 


VIII 
THE  WORD  AND  THE  SWORD 

The  writer  of  The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  in  one 
of  his  most  impressive  passages  declared :  'The 
Power  of  Word  of  God  is  living  and  active,  and 
the  Word  sharper  than  any  two-edged  sword, 
piercing  even  to  the  dividing  of  soul  and  spirit,  of 
both  joints  and  marrow,  and  quick  to  discern  the 
thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart"  (Heb.  4:12). 
The  force  and  significance  of  those  words  are  bet- 
ter understood  when  the  circumstances  of  the  first 
readers  are  known.  The  author  was  probably  writ-, 
ing  to  a  small  band  of  Christians  in  the  imperial 
city  of  Rome,  the  center  of  an  empire  won  and  gov- 
erned by  the  sword.  The  sword  was  the  all  power- 
ful, ever  present  force  in  society.  The  soldier  was 
the  most  important  and  most  desirable  citizen.  The 
power  of  the  sword  had  made  the  empire,  destroyed 
the  enemies  of  the  state,  reduced  powerful  peoples 
to  slavery,  and  assured  the  everlasting  security  of 
the  government. 

In  the  presence  of  this  mighty  force,  the  small 
III 


112     PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

band  of  Christian  disciples  seemed  powerless.  They 
had  seen  the  keen  edge  of  the  sword  laid  upon  the 
necks  of  their  faithful  fellow  believers  and  the 
point  driven  into  their  breasts.  The  Christians  had 
been  persecuted  and  martyred  by  an  unfriendly, 
mihtary  imperialism.  In  the  face  of  such  peril  and 
persecution  and  death  there  were  some  members 
of  the  early  church  in  Rome  who  had  lost  their 
faith  and  had  gone  back  to  paganism.  Many  others 
were  struggling  against  the  mighty  temptation  to 
surrender  in  the  contest  that  was  so  unequal  and 
that  promised  them  nothing  but  defeat.  To  these 
wavering,  discouraged  and  tempted  men  and  women 
in  the  imperial  city,  the  writer  of  this  letter  holds 
forth  a  helping  hand. 

He  makes  some  startling  assertions.  He  declares 
that  things  are  not  what  they  seem  to  be.  The  most 
powerful  weapon  was  not  the  sword  of  the  soldier 
but  the  word  of  God.  What  did  he  mean  by  the 
''Word  of  God"?  Primarily,  he  meant  the  truth 
as  it  had  been  revealed  to  thoughtful  and  reverent 
men.  Much  of  that  "Word"  was  contained  in  the 
scripture.  The  Old  Testament  was  regarded  by 
the  members  of  the  early  church  as  an  authoritative 
source  for  divine  will.  To  the  followers  of  Jesus, 
his  own  words  had  come  to  have  a  new  and  indis- 
putable authority.  These  words  had  not  superseded 
the  authority  of  the  law  and  the  prophets.     They 


THE  WORD  AND  THE  SWORD  I13 

were  supplementary  to  that  source  of  wisdom/ 
Jesus  came  "not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfil."  Jesus  had 
declared  that  He  was  the  Truth;  that  his  words 
were  truth. 

In  addition  to  these  sources  of  the  "Word"  there 
was  the  continued  influence  of  Jesus  through  the 
Holy  Spirit  which  "should  lead  them  into  all  truth." 
The  early  Christians  also  had  a  conviction  that  the 
divine  word  of  truth  was  still  further  revealed 
through  the  individual  experience  of  the  holy  men 
of  the  age.  The  man  whose  Hfe  was  an  example 
of  Christ-like  living  was  a  revelation  of  the  power 
of  the  "Word."  Paul  declared  to  his  friends  in 
Corinth :  Ye  are  our  epistle  known  and  read  of 
all  men;  being  made  manifest  that  ye  are  an  epistle 
of  Christ,  ministered  by  us,  written  not  with  ink^ 
but  with  the  spirit  of  the  living  God  (II  Cor.  3  :2-3). 
In  general  then  the  "Word"  was  the  recognized 
plan  and  purpose  of  love  and  redemption  for  the 
world,  a  plan  revealed  through  many  agencies,  a 
plan  to  be  carried  out  under  God's  direction  through 
the  willing  cooperation  of  men  and  women  on  the 
earth. 

The  word  of  God  was  a  truth,  conviction,  hope, 
an  individual  experience  of  the  presence  and  helping 
power  of  the  eternal  God  in  human  life. 

This  mighty  conviction  of  the  significance  o£  life 
became  a  powerful  weapon  in  the  hands  of  the 


114     PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

members  of  the  early  church  and  it  has  been  such 
in  the  hands  of  the  followers  of  Christ  ever  since. 
The  Word  of  God  is  a  weapon  for  per- 
Weaponof  sonal  defense  against  sin.  Like  the 
Defense  sword  it  is  a  weapon  for  hand-to-hand 
fighting.  The  hardest  fighting  is  at  close  range.  In 
modern  warfare  the  long  range  artillery  fire  is  a 
very  important  feature,  but  it  does  not  win  battles. 
The  decisive  movements  are  made  by  infantry  going 
over  the  top.  The  hard  fighting  is  with  the  bayonet, 
hand-to-hand.  For  members  of  the  Christian 
church  at  Rome  the  most  dangerous  enemies  of  the 
faith  were  not  militarism  or  paganism  but  the  foes 
of  the  spirit.  In  any  age  the  seductive  power  of 
indulgence,  the  intrigues  of  envy,  the  suffocating 
gases  of  fear  are  more  perilous  than  the  onslaughts 
of  the  sword.  The  sword  attacks  the  body ;  sin  at- 
tacks the  soul.  The  Word  of  God  is  the  keen- 
edged  weapon  with  which  to  vanquish  these  wily 
and  powerful  enemies.  Jesus  in  his  hour  of  tempta- 
tion grasped  and  wielded  with  masterful  skill  the 
Word  of  God.  Each  assault  of  temptation  was 
met  with  a  truth,  an  individual  experience  of  the 
Living  God.  'Tt  is  written — man  shall  not  live  by 
bread  alone  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out 
of  the  mouth  of  God."  "Thou  shalt  worship  the 
Lord  thy  God,  and  him  only  shalt  thou  serve." 
On   man^   other  occasions  Jesus  revealed  a  most 


THE  WORD  AND  THE  SWORD  115 

familiar  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  scriptures, 
wherein  were  related  the  experiences  of  men  who 
knew  God.  That  knowledge  was  to  him  a  constant 
weapon  of  defense.  John  Bunyan  in  "Pilgrim's 
Progress"  gives  the  picture  of  Christian  overcom- 
ing his  terrifying  enemy  Apollyon  with  the  sword  of 
the  Word  of  God.  *ln  atl  these  things  we  are  more 
than  conquerors  through  him  that  loved  us."  When 
Martin  Luther  was  climbing  on  his  knees  the  holy 
stairs  in  Rome,  struggling  with  enemies  of  the 
spirit  within  and  without,  there  came  to  his  aid  the 
words  of  scripture.  "The  just  shall  live  by  faith." 
With  that  conviction  as  a  weapon  he  went  home  to 
cut  the  Bible  from  the  chains  attaching  it  to  the  pil- 
lars in  the  monasteries  and  placed  its  words  on  the 
tongue  and  in  the  heart  of  every  common  man. 
Abraham  Lincoln  knew  how  to  use  the  Word  of 
God.  Roosevelt  said  of  Lincoln,  "He  was  a  man 
of  one  book — the  Bible."  The  climax  of  the  Sec- 
ond Inaugural  ends  with  a  thrust  of  the  sword  of 
the  Word:  "Yet,  if  God  wills  that  the  war  con- 
tinue until  all  the  wealth  piled  up  by  the  bondman's 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall 
be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with 
the  lash  shall  be  paid  by  another  drawn  by  the 
sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago,  still 
it  must  be  said,  The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are 
true  and  righteous  altogether.'  " 


Ii6     PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

There  is  a  surgery  of  conscience  in  which  the 
Word  is  the  cutting  instrument,  piercing  even 
,p.  to  the  dividing  of  soul  and  spirit,  and 

Surgery  quick  to  discern  the  thousrhts  and  in- 

of  Truth 

tents  of  the  heart.  No  man  knows  the 
power  of  truth  if  it  does  not  cause  him  pain.  If  the 
Word  of  God  does  not  reveal  to  a  man  his  own  sins, 
mistakes  and  follies  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  the 
heart  ache  and  the  spirit  groan  with  confession  and 
repentance  there  is  something  wrong  with  the  moral 
nervous  system. 

A  young  medical  missionary  in  Africa  suddenly 
struck  his  foot  against  the  sharp  end  of  a  chair. 
The  blow  that  should  have  hurt  severely  was  not 
felt  and  he  knew  instantly  that  something  was 
wrong.  Sitting  down  on  the  floor  he  probed  the 
spot  with  a  surgical  needle  and  found  that  a  con- 
siderable surface  of  his  flesh  was  without  sensi- 
bility. The  course  of  a  deadly  African  paralysis 
had  begun  in  his  body!  In  a  similar  fashion  in- 
sensibility tO'  the  Word  of  God  is  the  evidence  of 
moral  and  spiritual  paralysis.  A  vigorous  opposi- 
tion often  arises  against  any  truth  which  cuts  into 
the  moral  nature  and  reveals  therein  the  malignant 
evils. 

Some  people  resent  the  application  of  tnith 
through  the  preaching  of  the  pulpit,  when  it  hits 
personal  sins.    A  sermon  is  considered  by  too  many 


THE  WORD  AND  THE  SWORD  117 

people  to  be  a  source  of  pleasant  stimulating  instruc- 
tion, a  means  of  helping  the  hearer  to  "feel  better." 
On  the  contrary  sermons  ought  more  often  to  par- 
take of  the  nature  of  a  surgical  operation.  People 
ought  to  go  away  from  church  occasionally  with  a 
new  and  painful  consciousness  of  their  moral  and 
spiritual  sickness  and  a  feeling  that  a  severe  yet 
healing  service  has  been  rendered  to  them. 

Life's  desperate  soul  maladies  can  be  cured  only 
by  the  surgery  of  truth.  Happy  is  the  man  who  is 
willing  to  suffer  pain,  yea,  more,  who'  chooses  it 
because  it  means  the  ultimate  restoration  of  life  tO' 
normal  power.  The  Word  carries,  with  all  its  pain- 
giving  qualities,  a  certain  cure  for  the  maladies  of 
the  soul.  After  the  evil  has  been  cut  out  the  Word 
restores  again  what  the  Psalmist  called  "the  joy  of 
thy  free  spirit."  Through  its  ministry,  "saving 
health"  is  given. 

The  Word  was  the  most  powerful  weapon  of  of- 
fense against  a  hostile  world.  Jesus  did  not  in- 
The  struct  his  disciples  simply  with  the  tac- 

Weaponof  ties  of  a  defensive  warfare  with  evil. 
He  taught  them  how  to  conduct  the  of- 
fensive. He  went  Himself  travelling  about  the  re- 
gions of  Palestine  carrying  the  word  of  truth.  He 
sent  out  the  seventy  disciples  to  do  the  same.  His 
final  commission  to  his  own  disciples  and  to  those 
of  all  ages  was,   "Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and 


ii8     PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature."  What  the 
world  needed  was  a  change  of  mind.  Jesus  ex- 
pected his  disciples  to  do  this  through  the  wit- 
ness of  their  lives  and  preaching.  A  world  gone 
wrong  through  false  and  imperfect  knowledge  of 
truth  could  be  made  right  only  by  a  presentation  of 
the  truth  that  could  be  understood  and  practiced. 
Most  people  talk  so  habitually  and  so  easily  that 
they  fail  to  realize  the  power  of  speech.  Few  real- 
ize how  impressionable  and  how  easily  influenced 
by  speech  the  average  person  is.  Jesus  realized 
these  facts  in  human  nature  and  he  sent  his  disciples 
out  to  talk  their  way  around  the  world !  The  most 
powerful  weapon  of  offense  in  his  warfare  against 
evil  was  the  Word  of  God.  Peter  went  talking 
about  Jerusalem,  Paul  went  talking  to  Athens,  Cor- 
inth, Ephesus  and  Rome.  Christian  missionaries 
in  every  age  have  gone  first  into  the  adjacent  coun- 
tries, and  finally  to  every  corner  of  the  globe,  armed 
only  with  the  weapon  of  the  Word.  In  Jesus' 
thought  the  Word  was  not  only  the  weapon  of  the 
truth,  it  was  the  only  abiding  fact  of  life.  ^'Heaven 
and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but  my  word  shall  not 
pass  away"  (Matt.  24:35). 

There  is  a  striking  similarity  between  the  Chris- 
tians in  Rome  in  the  first  century  and  the  Christians 
in  America  to-day.  In  a  time  and  place  where  the 
sword  seemed  to  be  all  powerful,  men  were  asked  to 


THE  WORD  AND  THE  SWORD  119 

The  Word  believe  that  the  most  powerful  weapon 
Sword ^  was  the  Word  of  God.    In  our  day  there 

To-day  is  painfully  evident  a  new   revival  of 

the  power  of  the  sword.  The  sway  of  the  sword 
in  this  generation  causes  the  militant  imperialism 
of  Rome  to  seem  insignificant.  Where  would  the 
Roman  legions  of  the  Emperor  Domitian  stand  in 
comparison  with  the  forty  millions  under  arms  in 
the  world  to-day?  There  are  people  who  in  view 
of  the  present  revival  of  militarism  declare  that  for 
once  the  sword  is  more  powerful  than  the  Word. 
They  ask,  has  not  the  Word  failed  to  stop  the  havoc 
wrought  by  the  sword?  Have  not  the  peace  mis- 
sions failed?    Let  us  see. 

The  sword  to-day  has  multiplied  itself  into  a 
multitude  of  destructive  agencies  of  awful  power. 
There  is  the  colossal  machinery  of  war  organiza- 
tion; there  are  machine  guns,  submarines,  aero- 
planes; there  are  great  industrial  enterprises  en- 
tirely commanded  by  the  power  of  the  sword ;  there 
are  guns  of  magic  size  and  carrying  power  which 
make  the  marvellous  fables  of  old  seem  stories  of 
simple  reality ! 

In  the  face  of  all  these  indisputable  facts,  the 
Christian  still  has  the  faith  to  believe  that  even 
now  the  Word  is  more  powerful  than  the  sword! 
He  believes  that  the  truth  is  mightier  than  armies, 
empires,    battlefields,    liquid    fire,    poison    gas   and 


120;    PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

long  range  cannon.  Earth  may  pass  away  with  its 
empires,  its  ambitions,  its  chemical  discoveries,  but 
Christ's  word  shall  never  pass  away ! 

There  are  many  movements  that  make  this  con- 
viction more  than  a  faith.     In  Russia  to-day  the 

word  is  mightier  than  the  sword.   There 
In  Russia  ,        ,.  ,  •   i      • 

and  IS  nO'  escapmg  the   tact  that  socialistic 

Germany  propaganda  in  Russia  robbed  the  sword 
of  its  power.  What  are  intelligent  people  to-day 
watching  and  studying  with  greatest  care?  It  is 
the  minds  of  the  peoples  of  the  warring  nations. 
The  greatest  study  to-day  is  not  military  tactics  but 
human  psychology!  Even  in  Germany  the  word 
of  truth  is  more  feared  than  the  onslaughts  of  the 
sword.  Two  British  airmen  flew  over  a  certain  sec- 
tion of  Germany  and  dropped  literature  about  the 
true  principles  underlying  the  war  and  some  of  the 
facts  of  the  military  situation.  These  airmen 
dropped  not  bombs  of  explosives,  but  bombs  of 
truth.  ■  In  the  fortunes  of  war  these  two  British 
aviators  were  captured.  Under  the  ordinary  mili- 
tary procedure  they  would  have  been  interned  in  a 
prison  camp.  But  these  men  were  tried  by  court 
martial  arid  sentenced  to  ten  years  of  solitary  con- 
finement in  prison.  Why  this  severe  punishment? 
Were  their  bombs  especially  dangerous  to  the  Ger- 
man soldier  or  civilian?  Not  at  all.  But  the  truths 
which  their  bombs  released  were  dangerous  to  the 


THE  WORD  AND  THE  SWORD  121 

reigning  dynasty,  dangerous  to  imperialism  and 
autocracy!  Truth  in  the  mind  is  more  effective 
than  a  bullet  in  the  brain. 

The  Word  is  more  powerful  than  the  sword  be- 
cause in  every  case  the  sword  is  the  tool  of  the  idea. 
The  Agent  ^^  ^^^^^y  ^^  ^^e  weapon  of  a  wrong  or  an 
of  an  Idea  evil  idea ;  of  lust,  of  greed,  selfishness, 
autocratic  power,  ambition  for  world  dominion. 
The  sword  must  become,  sometimes,  the  weapon  in 
the  hands  of  men  driven  by  right  ideas,  by  love  of 
humanity,  human  freedom,  world  brotherhood.  The 
sword  does  not  settle  the  problems  that  drive  men 
to  war,  but  it  does  prepare  the  way  so  that  in  the 
end  the  power  of  truth  may  have  a  reasonable  op- 
portunity to  grow  into  a  place  of  supremacy.  The 
Revolutionary  War  did  not  settle  the  problem  of 
freedom ;  but  it  did  give  the  idea  of  freedom  a  new 
opportunity  to  vindicate  itself.  The  Civil  War  did 
not  establish  human  brotherhood,  but  it  has  given 
to  the  black  man  and  the  white  a  free  field  for  work- 
ing out  the  ideals  of  brotherhood.  There  are  few 
who  believe  that  as  a  result  of  the  war  any  world 
wide  democracy  will  be  immediately  established, 
but  men  do  believe  that  the  way  will  be  prepared 
by  the  sword  so  that  the  Word  of  truth  regarding 
right  principles  of  human  government  may  be  real- 
ized more  and  more  on  the  earth. 

The  Word  is  more  powerful  than  the  sword  be- 


122     PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

cause  it  is  by  truth  and  by  ideals  that  the  world  will 
be  and  must  be  governed  after  the  war.  War  is 
After  ^^^^  ^^^  normal  state  of  life  among  men. 

the  War  Unless  the  rule  of  truth  and  ideals  can 
be  established  there  is  nothing  to  look  forward 
to  but  perpetual  warfare  and  the  ultimate  extinc- 
tion of  the  human  race.  It  is  in  the  realization  of 
this  fact  that  we  turn  with  new  faith  to  the  Word 
of  truth  as  revealed  to  us  by  Jesus  Christ.  Men 
have  discovered  nothing  in  all  human  history  that 
so  surely  and  completely  offers  a  solution  for  the 
problems  of  world  wide,  international  relationships 
as  Jesus'  principle  of  good  will.  Heaven  and  earth 
may  pass  away  but  this  truth  will  not  pass  away. 

Mr.  J.  S.  MacDonald,  editor  of  the  Toronto 
Globe,  said  recently  to  a  college  audience :  ''My 
most  earnest  pleading  is  for  the  preparedness  of 
all  our  peoples  in  the  things  of  the  mind.  The 
army?  Yes.  The  navy?  Yes.  Fill  up  the  ranks  of 
the  khaki  and  the  blue.  But  when  our  bullets  and 
our  bayonets  have  done  their  fullest  part,  there  will 
still  be  a  call  for  leadership  in  schools  and  churches 
and  parliaments  of  the  world.  The  desolated  war 
nations  will  call,  as  never  before,  for  policies  and 
programs  that  make  for  truth  in  our  diplomacy  and 
for  integrity  in  our  politics.  From  you  and  from 
class  rooms  like  yours  must  go  out  that  leadership 
of  social  good  will  and  that  law  of  international 


THE  WORD  AND  THE  SWORD  123 

service,  in  which  alone  is  the  hope  of  Europe's 
redemption,  and  through  which  alone  can  come  en- 
during peace  for  the  world." 

We  believe  in  the  ultimate  supremacy  of  the 
Word  because  behind  it  is  the  wisdom  and  eternal 
The  purpose  of  God.     Behind  the  sword  is 

oMhe"'^''^  only  the  frail  mind  and  fleshy  arm  of 
Word  man.    The  sword  alone  does  not  insure 

final  triumph  for  the  Word,  but  the  Word  does 
promise  final  victory  over  the  sword.  The  sword 
does  not  make  truth  strong  so  much  as  truth  makes 
the  sword  strong.  Our  faith  to-day  must  in  the 
last  analysis  be  not  in  our  limitless  material  re- 
sources nor  in  our  potential  skill  in  warfare,  but  in 
a  power  "living  and  active,"  mightier  than  all  these 
elements : 

"The  arm  of  flesh  will  fail  you, 
Ye  dare  not  trust  your  own." 

Our  faith  is  in  God  who  works  in  and  through 
the  ambitions  of  empires  and  the  tides  of  battle  and 
in  the  end  "causes  the  wrath  of  man  to  praise  him." 

A  small  band  of  Christians  in  the  days  of  Rome's 
mighty  imperialism  had  faith  that  the  Word  was 
mightier  than  the  sword.  That  fact,  handed  down 
from  age  to  age,  has  witnessed  the  rvisting  of  the 
Roman's  sword  and  the  complete  decay  of  that  im- 
perial glory,  but  the  Word  has  gone  on  conquering 


124     PATRIOTISM  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

and  is  to  conquer.  Little  by  little  it  is  building  the 
Kingdom  of  God  in  the  lives  of  men.  It  remains 
for  the  millions  of  Christians  in  the  world  to-day  to 
view  the  new  onslaughts  of  the  sword  in  the  same 
triumphant  faith  and  to  make  every  effort  to  speed 
the  Word  on  its  healing  and  saving  mission  in  the 
world. 

For  Study  and  Discussion 

What  is  truth?  Why  the  wide  differences  in 
man's  understanding  of  the  truth?  Why  should  the 
scriptures  have  been  called  through  long  years  ''The 
Word  of  God"?  Why  did  John  call  Jesus  ''the 
Word"  ?  Compare  the  two  expressions  of  man's 
experience  of  the  living  God.  Recall  instances  dur- 
ing the  war  when  men  have  proved  that  they  were 
more  afraid  of  ideas  than  of  guns.  Why  should 
ideas  be  more  dangerous  than  a  sword? 

Why  is  the  average  Christian  not  more  effective 
as  a  propagandist  of  "the  Word"?  What  is  the 
place  of  Christian  propaganda  in  establishing  a  new 
social  order?  How  shall  the  church  bring  its  in- 
fluence to  bear  on  the  problems  of  international 
diplomacy  and  the  terms  of  peace?  What  is  the 
bearing  of  the  program  of  missionary  agencies  on 
this  question?  Are  we  going  forward  to-day  with 
as  triumphant  a  conviction  of  the  power  of  the 
Word  as  did  the  early  Christians? 


p„„,e,on  Theolog.cal  Sern,nary-Sp«r  Ubjary 


1     1 


012  01002  3895 


